COVID-19 update for March 9: Here’s the latest on coronavirus in B.C.

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Here’s your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C. for March 9, 2021.

We’ll provide summaries of what’s going on in B.C. right here so you can get the latest news at a glance. This page will be updated regularly throughout the day, with developments added as they happen.

Check back here for more updates throughout the day. You can also get the latest COVID-19 news delivered to your inbox weeknights at 7 p.m. by subscribing to our newsletter here.

B.C.’S COVID-19 CASE NUMBERS

As of March 9:

Total number of confirmed cases: 85,119 (4,869 active)
• New cases since March 8: 550
• Total deaths: 1,393 (2 new)
• Hospitalized cases: 249
• Intensive care: 68
• Total vaccinations: 256,443 people are immunized, of whom 86,938 have had a second dose.
• Cases under public health monitoring: 8,971
• Recovered: 78,770
• Long-term care and assisted-living homes, and acute care facilities currently affected: 17

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IN-DEPTH:COVID-19: Here are all the B.C. cases of the novel coronavirus

B.C. GUIDES AND LINKS

• COVID-19: Here’s a list of all the vaccination clinics in B.C.

• COVID-19: Here’s everything you need to know about the novel coronavirus

• COVID-19 FAQ: What you need to know about the vaccine rollout in B.C.

• COVID-19: Have you been exposed? Here are all B.C. public health alerts

• COVID-19 at B.C. schools: Here are the school district exposure alerts

• COVID-19: Avoid these hand sanitizers that are recalled in Canada

• COVID-19: Here’s where to get tested in Metro Vancouver

• B.C. COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool

LATEST NEWS ON COVID-19 IN B.C.

8 p.m. – COVID-19 forces closure of Abbotsford school

Ecole Centennial Park Elementary School in Abbotsford has closed because it does not have enough teachers available after its latest COVID-19 exposure.

Starting Wednesday, the school will be voluntarily closed “due to operational limitations as a result of a number of staff and/or students needing to self isolate at home.

The school – in the Fraser Health region – has had exposures on Jan. 11, Feb. 16-24 and March 1 and 2. The school will remain closed until after spring break.

David Carrigg

3 p.m. – Troubling appearance of Brazilian variant with just five per cent of B.C.’s population vaccinated

British Columbia now has cases of all three COVID-19 variants, after the troubling appearance of the Brazilian variant P1.

While the U.K. and South African variants are more infections, the Brazilian variant has reinfected some people who had recovered from the original virus.

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On Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said there had been 182 new COVID-19 variants cases reported, including the P1 case.

This came a day after she reported 114 new variant cases over a three day period. Last Friday there were 16 variant cases reported in a day – so numbers are accelerating.

Henry said the bulk of those cases (530) had been the U.K. variant B117, followed by the South African variant B117 (33) and now the one P1 variant case.

There were a total 550 new cases of the disease reported over the past day, and two deaths.

There are 4,869 active cases in B.C., of which 249 are being treated in hospital including 68 in intensive care (a jump of two).

More than 10,000 people were given a first dose of vaccine on Tuesday, with the government providing very few second doses.

So far, 256,443 people in B.C. have received vaccine – or five per cent of the total population.

David Carrigg

2:30 p.m. – Federal mandatory hotel quarantine policy faces legal challenge from constitutional rights group

A constitutional rights advocacy group is mounting a legal challenge to the Canadian government’s quarantine hotel policy.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation has filed an application with Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice along with five individuals, seeking an end to the policy.

A government order that went into effect on Feb. 14 mandates that anyone entering Canada from abroad must stay in a federally approved hotel for the first three nights of a 14-day quarantine.

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Travellers may leave the hotels once a COVID-19 test taken at their point of entry comes back negative.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation argues in its legal application that hotel quarantine requirements are “overbroad, arbitrary and grossly disproportionate.”

The applicants are seeking an injunction to suspend the order, but are also asking to have the law struck down for infringing upon the constitutional rights of liberty, freedom from unreasonable detention, and the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.

– The Canadian Press

1 p.m. – Health minister Dix blasts Telus for vaccination booking problems

The B.C. Liberals slammed the government during question period Tuesday for not being better prepared to handle the high call volumes during the first two days of the COVID-19 vaccination bookings in B.C.

Opposition leader Shirley Bond said the situation was “chaos” for people trying to book appointments while Liberal MLA Todd Stone said Dix and Premier John Horgan must take responsibility for the “fiasco.” Stone said it’s unfair that people across the province had different access to book vaccines since Fraser Health was the only health authority with an online option.

Vancouver Coastal Health has had significant problems, Dix said, because it relied solely on the contact service provider, Telus, whereas the other four health authorities had their own backup call centre staff.

The system faced technical problems and insufficient staff, Dix said. He said the health authority is training staff to assist the call centre.

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Dix said Telus “failed us yesterday” which he said “is completely unacceptable.” He said Telus did not follow through on their contractual obligation and he wants the company to take responsibility for the failure.

“People should be mad that the service provider didn’t come through here,” Dix said. “To say I’m disappointed and frustrated would be an understatement.”

In a statement Tuesday, Telus apologized for the call centre failures and acknowledged it let people down.

12:50 p.m. – Outbreak declared at Surrey long-term care facility

Fraser Health says a COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Fleetwood Place, a long-term care facility in Surrey.

The health authority says one patient and one staff members have tested positive and both are now in self-isolation at their homes.

“Fraser Health is also working with the site to identify anyone who may have been exposed, and is taking steps to protect the health of all staff, residents and families,” the health authority said Tuesday.

Fleetwood Place, located at 16011 – 83rd Avenue, is a contracted long-term care facility that is privately owned and operated.

Also Tuesday, Fraser Health declared an outbreak over at the nearby Fleetwood Villa retirement community.

11:15 a.m. – Trudeau says J&J vaccine faces production challenges

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has been warned of manufacturing problems plaguing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The viral vector vaccine developed by J&J’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, was authorized by Health Canada as safe and effective last week.

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Canada pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, which is the first and only one in Canada’s vaccine plan that requires only one dose.

But Trudeau says Canada still doesn’t have a date for when it should receive the first deliveries.

“We have heard in many conversations with Johnson & Johnson that there are challenges around production of the Janssen vaccine, but we will continue to engage with them and we look forward to receiving doses as soon as possible,” he said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa.

“And as soon as we get confirmation of doses being sent to Canada, we will let everyone know.”

– The Canadian Press

9:30 a.m. – Vancouver Coastal Health vaccination phone lines jammed again

It’s another frustrating day for people trying to book COVID-19 vaccinations in Vancouver Coastal Health.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix revealed last night that just under 15,000 appointments were booked province-wide Monday, the first day B.C. residents over the age of 90 or Indigenous elders over 65 could make appointments.

But of those bookings, only 369 were made in Vancouver Coastal Health, the province’s second largest health region.

Next door in Fraser Health, which also offers an online option, there were 8,722 bookings made while the Interior and Vancouver Island health authorities each recorded just under 2,500 bookings and residents in the north made just over 1,000.

Vancouver resident Erin Cumming, who spent all day Monday and most of Tuesday morning trying to book vaccination appointments for her parents without success, says it’s been a frustrating experience.

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“I just don’t know how the government could have so badly underestimated how much pressure the call centre would be under. It’s a missed opportunity to employ people in a time of relatively high unemployment,” Cumming said.

– Scott Brown, Postmedia

8:45 a.m. – Canada ranks worse than most developed countries in COVID-19 ‘misery index,’ study says

Canada has had a miserable time coping with COVID-19, according to new research that seeks to take the broadest possible measure of the country’s pandemic response, accounting for everything from mortality rates to economic malaise.

A “misery index” published by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute on Monday suggests that overall well-being in Canada has suffered more than average, ranking 11th out of 15 countries on a scale of miserableness.

The index compiled 16 broad measures — mortality rates, visits to intensive-care units, the pace of vaccinations, lockdown stringency, GDP changes and unemployment, among other things — and rated Canada’s performance on a scale from zero to 100 in each category.

While Canada was spared the worst ravages of the disease, our response to it has brought significant misery.

Overall, Canada ranked higher than other countries in terms of curbing the virus itself, but was among the worst on the question of economic impact and pandemic response, placing 13th and 14th, respectively. It placed 6th out of 15 countries in containing the virus.

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– Jesse Snyder, Postmedia

8:30 a.m. – Birth rates are falling despite our close quarters

It’s commonly held that a power outage or a holiday can lead to a spike in birth rates nine months later. In fact, August has been noted as the month with the highest number of births — possibly thanks to December merrymaking.

And, so it would seem a baby boom might come during or after the pandemic-caused lockdown. After all, what were people to do indoors but pause, ponder and procreate?

Research shows that in addition to the economic downturn and employment uncertainty, “negative expectations about the future have all been associated with a postponement of childbearing plans.” Total fertility rates will be lower in the short term and will bump up again once things settle, according to the Vanier Institute of the Family.

More sex is insufficient for a baby boom to occur

As Australian population expert Dr. Liz Allen puts it, “Being stuck at home with a partner doesn’t meet the necessary ingredients for increased fertility rates. More sex is insufficient for a baby boom to occur.”

The ovulation- and pregnancy-test company Stix found in a limited survey that 56 per cent of customers who purchased tests during the months of March and April 2020 were trying not to get pregnant, compared to pre-COVID times, when the majority were trying to start or extend their family.

–  Shari Kulha, Postmedia

12 a.m. – Increased family visits at long-term care homes, return to on-campus learning for B.C. post-secondary

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The provincial health officer says she will loosen family visitation restrictions at long-term care facilities by the end of this month.

On Monday, Dr. Bonnie Henry also told the presidents of all public colleges and universities in B.C. to prepare for full return to on-campus learning in the fall.

However, Henry said an increasing percentage of variant cases within daily COVID-19 counts was worrying and community transmission needed to come down.

There were 144 COVID-19 variant test results over the past three days, leading to a jump in active variant cases from 16 to 87.

Henry said the bulk of the 394 variant cases identified in B.C. so far had been in Fraser Health — mostly the variant identified in the U.K., but also some of the variant identified in South Africa. These mutations of the original COVID-19 are more infectious.

— David Carrigg

12 a.m. – Phone lines jammed on busy first day of vaccination bookings

Of the 1.7 million calls that clogged B.C.’s COVID-19 vaccination booking phone lines on the first day, more than 100 of them belonged to Vancouver resident Kanchan Dhugga who spent Monday desperately trying to get an appointment for her elderly grandparents.

It was an anxiety-inducing and exhausting experience shared by thousands of people who faced busy signals, dropped calls and long waiting times as health authority call centres became overwhelmed Monday.

Approximately 15,000 people did get appointments Monday, some being offered the vaccine that same day or later this week.

More than half of the bookings — 8,722 — were in the Fraser Health region which is the only health authority that allows people to book appointments online. Significant problems in the Vancouver Coastal Health area caused the system to crash for most of the day resulting in only 369 appointments booked, Health Minister Adrian Dix wrote on Twitter Monday night.

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In the Interior Health region, 2,456 people booked appointments Monday, while 2,395 people got through in Island Health and 1007 successful bookings in the Northern Health Authority.

— Katie Derosa, Cheryl Chan

12 a.m. – Drop in number of travellers to B.C. described as ‘precipitous’

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to international and non-resident travel to B.C. dropping from nearly 19 million visitors in 2019 to just above one million in 2020, a B.C. tourism industry conference was told Monday.

Ken Peacock, Business Council of B.C. chief economist and vice president, described as “precipitous” the decline in non-resident travellers to B.C. in the nine-month period of April to December in 2020, compared to 2019 and several years earlier.

“When you see a chart like this, it’s almost eye-popping,” he said. “It is difficult to comprehend.”

Peacock was speaking on the first day of the five-day B.C. Tourism and Hospitality Conference held for the first time online.

— Kevin Griffin

B.C. VACCINE TRACKER

LOCAL RESOURCES for COVID-19 information

Here are a number of information and landing pages for COVID-19 from various health and government agencies.

• B.C. COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool

• Vancouver Coastal Health – Information on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

• HealthLink B.C. – Coronavirus (COVID-19) information page

• B.C. Centre for Disease Control – Novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

• Government of Canada – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Outbreak update

• World Health Organization – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak

– With files from The Canadian Press