B.C. health officials are reporting a second straight record day for new COVID-19 cases with 911, including 47 in Interior Health.

Dr. Bonnie Henry also reported another 11 deaths today, taking the death toll to 395 people, with 107 of those deaths coming since Nov. 13. She says ‘the vast majority’ of today’s deaths – eight in Fraser Health and three in Vancouver Coastal Health – were seniors living in long-term care homes.

Active cases are up to a new record 8,472, up from 7,899 yesterday, with 399 active cases in the Interior. There are ten people in hospital in the Interior, one of which is in ICU.

There are now 301 people in hospital with the virus – another new record – of which 69 are in intensive care. There are also outbreaks of COVID-19 in 59 long-term care homes and hospitals, and 718 residents currently have the virus.

“We are in the eye of the COVID-19 storm and are now facing a storm surge with increasing community transmission across our province,” said Dr. Henry. “No community or location is immune.”

“We have had to step back to protect our communities from this surge, which means locations, activities and gatherings that were safe a few weeks ago are less safe today.”

Of today’s case load, there were 649 cases in Fraser Health and another 153 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 27 on Vancouver Island, and 35 in Northern Health.

“I understand that people would like a break but right now that’s not possible,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said, noting health officials in the province have been talking about COVID-19 for ten months.

“It is important to note that in many cases, including at temples, churches and gurdwaras, the places themselves are not the cause for concern as they are not doing anything wrong,” added Dr. Henry. “It is our level of risk that has gone up, which means our ability to have any safe gathering right now has gone down.”

There are 10,430 people under active public health monitoring, while 21,304 people are considered to have recovered from COVID-19, roughly 69 per cent of the total 30,844 cases in British Columbia.