The Skeena
With hundreds of new COVID cases announced every day in B.C., exposures happening on flights to Prince Rupert and an outbreak at a Kitimat LNG camp, it’s clear that the pandemic is intensifying across the Skeena Region and the province.
If that weren’t reason enough for alarm, leading Canadian disease specialist Moriarty Lab has released a chilling statistic: One out of every 29 people across the country that’s been diagnosed with COVID since March has died. The figure is one out 77 for B.C.
“In Canada, new per capita COVID19 cases today are about 50 percent higher than new cases in the rest of the world, and more than three times higher than the peak of Wave One in Canada,” Dr. Tara Moriarty, who has done multiple events with Skeena Strong over the fall, wrote Sunday on Twitter. “I don’t know how to get this across to people who need to start staying home. We are in serious trouble.”
The death rate in particular is worrisome, she argues, because it is currently higher than in countries like Germany, Spain, France and even the U.S. The stats are particularly grim for Canadians in long-term care and retirement homes, where one in four diagnosed with COVID has died.
Moriarty urged people across the country to practice mask-wearing and social distancing, as well as limiting their interactions with people outside their household, because “This time around, we don’t have full lockdowns to protect us, even though our epidemic is much bigger, we have similar, low test positivity & tests/case numbers as March.”
Northern Health is urging people in the Skeena to take that message seriously, saying last week that “We need your support to avoid more stringent measures.”
