As usual, the start of a new work week means an updated chart of BC’s reported new COVID-19 infections, broken down into Tuesday-Monday 7-day totals. As you can see from the above chart, we still see week-to-week growth in our new infection totals. This last week saw a 7.4% increase over the previous week’s total. This is also the second week in a row where BC has seen an average of >100 new infections per day. Both Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix continue to request that we all limit our interactions as much as possible right now, and try to stick with only 6 consistent social contacts to help fight the spread of the virus.
In other news, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate being produced by Oxford/AstraZeneca, which had to be put on hold due to a single event of an unexplained illness on September 8th, was given the go-ahead to continue their human trials by an independent review in the UK as of September 12th. Today, however, Reuters reported that a source familiar with the details had confirmed US testing had not resumed, and that the FDA is now involved with their own probe into the situation. Reuters also confirmed that the unexpected illness suffered by one of the trial participants was a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis. Reuters is reporting this condition as a side effect of the vaccine, however, I can not find any corroborating reports to confirm this. We may not know for sure if this condition is related to the vaccine until the full report for the trial is made public.
For those who live in the lower mainland and use public transit regularly, Translink has just announced a new limited edition compass card themed after Dr. Bonnie Henry’s popular catchphrase “Be kind. Be calm. Be Safe”. The new card will go on sale tomorrow at 8am and will be available exclusively at the Compass Customer Service Centre, located at the Stadium-Chinatown Skytrain Station.
The new compass card is part of Translink’s upcoming Fall Ridership Campaign. This campaign will encourage people to take transit, be more aware of the safety measures in place to protect them, and to participate in the safety measures that are expected of them. To this end, Translink will be installing additional signage and stickers on buses, trains, and stations.
That’s all for now, stay safe everyone!
BC COVID-19 Info 