Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia:
“Today, we are reporting 1,262 new cases, for a total of 109,540 cases in British Columbia.
“There are 9,574 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 15,673 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 98,336 people who tested positive have recovered.
“Of the active cases, 332 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 102 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
“Since we last reported, we have had 358 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 638 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 54 in the Island Health region, 132 in the Interior Health region, 79 in the Northern Health region and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.
“There have been two new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,495 deaths in British Columbia.
“Over one million doses (1,025,019) of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,606 of which are second doses.
“This is a significant milestone for all of us, and we will continue to work to get vaccines into arms as soon as we can. Today, people 65 and older, Indigenous peoples 18 and over, and individuals who have received their ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ letter may register for their vaccine.
“The outbreak at Eagle Ridge Hospital is now over.
“There are currently 4,111 cases of COVID-19 that are confirmed variants of concern in our province. Of the total cases, 105 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 3,082 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 55 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 974 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.
“No matter what our age, or where we may be, our province is not yet protected from COVID-19. This is why we all need to follow all of the public health orders.
“Avoid indoor gatherings outside of your household and avoid travel. Get tested if you have even mild symptoms and use all of your layers of protection. This is how we will slow the spread and get ahead of the virus strains that are in our communities right now.
“Bending the rules only delays our ability to put the pandemic behind us, so let’s ensure we are not looking for exceptions to the orders we have in place, but rather looking to how we can help each other to stay small, stay local and stay strong in the face of COVID-19.”
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