B.C. health officials are reporting 1,158 cases of COVID-19 over the past weekend, as well as 21 more deaths, taking the death toll to 1,210 people.

There were 408 cases on Saturday, 473 on Sunday, and 277 today – the lowest single-day case count since late October.

There were 194 cases and six deaths in Interior Health over the weekend with the other 493 cases in Fraser Health, 295 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 98 in Northern Health, and 78 on Vancouver Island.

Interior Health meanwhile declared a COVID-19 outbreak at Westsyde Care Residences group home in Kamloops after nine residents and three staff members tested positive for the virus. Further, the outbreak at Royal Inland Hospital grew by two cases to 81 – with 65 cases considered active.

Active cases provincewide are at 4,134 people, down by 423 from Friday’s update with 289 people in hospital – the fewest since Nov. 24 – of which 79 are in intensive care. In Interior Health, there are 965 active cases with 50 people in hospital, 18 in ICU.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry says there have been 138,892 people who have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 4,491 people who’ve gotten two doses. She also says B.C. will receive small amounts of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines later this week.

Dr. Henry also says there are four cases are of the South African COVID-19 variant in the province and 14 of the UK variant for 18 total variant cases in the province.

Three of the South African variant cases are in Vancouver Coastal Health with the other in Fraser Health. There were seven new U.K. variant cases confirmed over the weekend – four on Vancouver Island, and one each in Vancouver Coastal, Fraser Health, and Interior Health.

“We are not seeing a lot of it in our community, despite the surveillance we are doing,” she said, adding the variants are still ‘a concern’ for health authorities. “We have stepped up our surveillance.”

Hold off on Super Bowl Parties: Dr. Henry

Henry also urged people to ‘hold off on the Super Bowl celebrations’ with the game set to take place this Sunday, Feb. 7.

“You should not be planning – whether it’s at home, a bar or a restaurant – viewings of the Super Bowl. If we are not able to control this, and start seeing spread again, we can undo all the good work we have done,” she said, noting it is still safe to watch the game with your own household.

“Many people have parties in their household, that is not on this year.”

Henry also noted people in Whistler – where nearly 300 cases were recorded between Jan. 1 and Jan. 26 – are still socializing too much after skiing.

As for the ongoing restrictions that are in place until Feb. 5, she teased that more more details will be coming that day, but health officials again stressed the need for people to stay close to home.

“[These variants are] one of the things that is factoring into all of the decisions we have to make together over these next coming weeks,” Henry added.

Nearly 90 per cent of the total 67,937 cases to date are now considered to have recovered, while there are another 7,242 people are under active public health monitoring due to an exposure to someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19.