As weekly cases of COVID-19 continue to drop steadily in B.C., health officials say any easing of restrictions next week will be gradual.
The province reported 1,360 new cases of the virus over the past three days, which is an average of 453 cases per day over the weekend.
As announced during the past four Monday news briefings, average daily new cases on weekends have dropped from 830 on April 26 to 724 on May 3 down to 586 on May 10 before dropping to 453 today.
There were 126 new cases in Interior Health over the past three days, as well as 861 cases in Fraser Health, 290 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 47 in Northern Health and 36 in Island Health.
Health officials also reported 14 deaths from COVID-19 over the weekend, with 12 deaths being people 60 and older, with another victim in their 50s and another in their 40s.
There are now 5,021 active COVID-19 cases in the province, with 350 people in hospital, 132 in ICU. All of those numbers are down from Friday’s COVID update.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is again urging people to “stay the course” this coming May long weekend. She says that means no travelling and no large gatherings during what she calls the unofficial start to summer.
“We will be reviewing the number of people vaccinated, the peak at three-week effectiveness as well as the level of community transmission over the next few days to determine where we can go from here. There is a plan that we will be presenting to you. Until then, we all need to hold the line,” she says.
“We now have 400 to 500 people a day that are still testing positive for COVID-19 and that reminds us that the virus continues to circulate. And we have to do all we can to stop those transmissions as we’re all developing this protections.”
Henry says over 2.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered across the province.
“This means over 55 per cent of eligible adults 18 years and over have now received their first dose of vaccine,” she added. “We’ve also given 130,023 second doses, which is about three per cent but we know that many people will be coming due in the next few weeks with their dose two.”
Everyone over the age of 18 in B.C. is able to book a vaccine appointment. Henry says details on how people aged 12 to 17 can book their own vaccine appointments will be coming soon.
– with files from Victor Kaisar
