VANCOUVER -- One of B.C.'s largest COVID-19 outbreaks has ended, health officials announced earlier this week.
Fraser Health said in a news release Friday that the outbreak at Hilton Villa Seniors Community in Surrey has been declared over.
The outbreak there began on Dec. 10 and eventually grew to include 123 cases of the coronavirus in total, according to data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Seventy-six residents of the long-term care home tested positive for the virus during the outbreak, and 17 of them died. The rest of the infections at the facility were found in staff members.
Hilton Villa was one of three care homes with active outbreaks involving more than 100 cases of COVID-19 in the most recent BCCDC report. The other two facilities with outbreaks of that size were at the George Derby Centre in Burnaby, where 109 cases have been detected, and at Royal City Manor in New Westminster, where there have been 131 cases.
New outbreak declared at Port Coquitlam facility
On Saturday, Fraser Health declared a new COVID-19 outbreak at Shaughnessy Care Centre in Port Coquitlam.
Two residents at the long-term care facility have tested positive and are now in isolation in their rooms, the health authority said in a news release.
This is the second coronavirus outbreak at Shaughnessy Care Centre. A previous outbreak at the facility was declared back in March. A total of three infections were associated with that outbreak, and only one of them was found in a resident. Unfortunately, that resident died, according to data from the BCCDC.
The number of active outbreaks in B.C. health-care facilities has dropped considerably in recent weeks, a fact provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry attributed to the COVID-19 vaccine and called "extremely encouraging news" during her briefing on the pandemic on Friday.
