Provincial Health Officer Dr.Bonnie Henry has been easing up restrictions in the province in the past week, such as lessening the visitor restrictions in long term and assisted living facilities and allowing outdoor gatherings of up to ten people.
However, 908 new cases were reported in BC today (Friday), making it the largest single-day total in 2021, beating yesterday’s (Thursday) mark of 800.
This is BC’s third-highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.
78 of the cases were identified in Northern Health, meaning the region accounted for about 9% of the total new cases.
Northern Health now has 357 active cases, while 37 people are in hospital; 12 of whom are in ICU.
Meanwhile, Prince George residents aged 74 (born in or before 1947) are now able to call and book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment.
Across BC, there are 6,245 active cases while 294 people are in hospital, 81 of whom are in ICU.
There have been 140 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in BC, for a total of 1,912 cases with 258 currently active as the remaining cases have recovered.
To date, 637,856 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,233 of which are second doses.
There have been three new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,449 deaths in BC.
“While we are in a different stage of our COVID-19 pandemic than where we have been before – safe and effective vaccines that are increasing the protection for all of us – we are facing a sustained increase in clusters of new cases and outbreaks, including increasing cases caused by variants of concern,” said Dr.Bonnie Henry.
Vancouver: 22,697 (+294)
Fraser: 55,055 (+438)
Vancouver Island: 3,093 (+55)
Interior: 8,297 (+43)
Northern: 5,382 (+78)