The worst COVID-19 outbreak in New Westminster has now hit more than 100 cases.
The long-term care unit at Royal City Manor has had a coronavirus outbreak since Jan. 3, and it has reached at least 113 cases, according to the last update on Jan. 27 by the BC Centre for Disease Control.
Out of those 113 cases, 86 involve residents – 19 of those residents have died. The outbreak comes just as long-term care residents received the COVID-19 vaccine. The BCCDC is expected to update these numbers later this week.
There is also currently a COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Columbian Hospital.
New COVID-19 cases in New Westminster jumped significantly last week – doubling the number of the much-larger community of Richmond, according to the latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control.
BCCDC data show New Westminster had a total of 85 new coronavirus cases between Jan. 24 and 30. By contrast, Richmond had 44 new cases during the same period despite being a community of 215,000 people compared to about 70,000 in New West. That’s also more than the 79 cases in the combined area of Langley city and township.
The number is also above the 60 cases logged between Jan. 17 and 23. New West had 82 cases from Jan. 10-16. The good news is the 85 cases is a drop from the 96 new cases between Jan. 3 and 9.
New West had 60 new cases reported between Dec. 27, 2020, and Jan. 2, 2021, and 55 cases reported from Dec. 20-26.
Overall in December, New West had 343 new COVID-19 cases. By comparison, there were 94 cases New West in all of October and 71 cases in September. New West had 967 cases between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020.
