There are now 100,048 cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in B.C. after health officials announced 1,013 new cases Wednesday.
Of the new cases, six are epi-linked.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reports that there have been 385 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 458 in the Fraser Health region, 47 in the Island Health region, 64 in the Interior Health region, 60 in the Northern Health Region and no new cases from people who reside outside of Canada.
Due to a delay in the sequencing analysis for variants of concern, no new cases for the last 24 hours are unavailable.
There has been one new outbreak at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. The outbreak at Mission Memorial Hospital is now over.
“To date, 756,080 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,351 of which are second doses," said Henry.
There have been three new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,458 deaths in British Columbia.
Of the total COVID-19 cases, 301 individuals are hospitalized, 80 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
There are 7,405 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 11,468 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 91,066 people who tested positive have recovered.
“We all have the same ability to spread the COVID-19 virus – no matter our age. We also know that regardless of where we work or what pre-existing health conditions we may have, the older we are, the higher our risk of severe illness."
A note on the long weekend
Henry adds that there will be expanded visitation in all long-term care facilities heading into the long weekend. However, she emphasizes that "safety plans must be followed, including wearing masks and staying away if you feel unwell."
Travel for leisure or vacation outside of your local communities or regions must also be avoided. "The risk for all of us is too great, which means any of our usual travel and holiday weekend gatherings need to be put on hold this year."
Henry added that there are "three important things to remember about the COVID-19 vaccines. First, everyone will have access to a safe and effective vaccine, and that remains on track to happen before Canada Day.
“Second, the more people who receive a vaccine, the safer we all are, which is why we are working around the clock to get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible.
“Third, we don’t yet have enough people protected through the vaccines to be able to put aside any of our safety precautions, so we need to continue to follow all the public health orders and guidelines we have in place."
In order to push the curve back down in the wake of surging cases of the virus, Henry encourages you to stay outside with your same group of close contacts.
"This is what will get us closer to putting COVID-19 behind us.”
