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 862 new cases, for a total of 121,751 cases in British Columbia.
“There are 8,906 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 13,135 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 111,039 people who tested positive have recovered.
“Of the active cases, 483 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 163 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 200 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 557 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 25 in the Island Health region, 54 in the Interior Health region, 26 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
“There is no new update on the variants of concern.
“There have been seven new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,546 deaths in British Columbia. Our condolences are with the family, friends and caregivers of the people who have died as a result of COVID-19.
“1,456,946 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 88,335 of which are second doses.
“For each person who gets vaccinated, we are all safer. When your turn comes up for one of the three vaccines, it is your turn to go. We strongly urge you to book your appointment as soon as you can. This is one of the important ways for you to do your part.
“People 30 years and older are now eligible to register for a vaccine in our age-based program on the Get Vaccinated website. People aged 40 and up are also now eligible to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine at their local pharmacy or through special clinics in 13 high-risk communities.
“We continue to do all we can to break the chains of transmission in our communities and slow COVID-19 down. One of the steps we are taking is the Workplace Closure public health order, which gives WorkSafeBC the ability to close businesses for at least 10 days under the direction of health authority medical health officers.
“Through this order, we are helping to prevent transmission at work, supporting businesses to ensure workplaces are safe for everyone and ensuring people do not unintentionally spread the virus to colleagues or bring COVID-19 back home to their families.
“Our front-line health-care workers are under intense pressure and the number of people requiring specialized care in our critical and intensive care units continues to increase. This is the result of our individual and collective actions from two weeks ago. What we do today will determine how we fare two weeks from now.
“It is the small, simple things we do every day that make a difference – washing our hands, wearing a mask, staying away from others and not travelling if we do not need to. And, the time to do that is now.
“We can slow COVID-19, and we can bend our curve back down. Let’s all do our part today to make that happen.”
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