Ahead of the B.C. Day weekend, COVID-19 cases have continued a rapid climb in the province, with 243 new cases on Friday.

Those include 131 cases in Interior Health, as well as 56 in Fraser Health, 32 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 13 in Island Health and nine in Northern Health. There were also two new cases among out-of-province residents who contracted the virus in B.C.

There are 47 people in hospital and 16 people in intensive care; both of those numbers are down by four from Thursday and, to this point, hospitalizations have not climbed as new daily cases have increased.

During the pandemic, there has been a one-to-two-week lag for hospitalizations to rise after cases spike. But in this case it’s yet to be seen if that will materialize, thanks to generally more mild cases as a result of vaccines impeding the ability of COVID-19 to spread.

Active cases did, however, spike significantly again today, with now 1,231 active cases, which is almost 200 more cases than Thursday (1,055). Well over half of those active cases are in Interior Health, with 693.

IH has about 15 per cent of B.C.’s population, and the majority of new cases are being linked to a widespread outbreak in the Kelowna area, which was declared earlier this week. Health officials believe almost all of the cases linked to that outbreak are among people who are not vaccinated or have only received a first dose.

When it comes to vaccines, another 41,948 doses have been administered in the past day, and 6,774,257 doses have gone out in B.C. since December, when they first became available.

In total, 81.1 per cent of people 12 and older in B.C. have now received one dose. B.C. also passed three million residents being fully vaccinated today, with now a 64.9 per cent rate of fully-vaccinated people for those who are 12 and older.