There have been 634 new cases of COVID-19 across B.C. today – the highest one day total since Jan. 7 – including 33 new cases in Interior Health.
There were also another four deaths reported taking the death toll to 1,380 people.
In other health authorities today, there were 365 new cases of the virus in Fraser Health, 149 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 60 in Northern Health, 26 in Island Health and one in a person lives outside of Canada but got the virus here.
Across B.C., there are now 4,901 active cases with 255 people in hospital and 66 people in intensive care. In Interior Health, there are 365 active cases with 16 people in hospital and seven people in ICU.
Meanwhile, for three weeks now, there have been no new cases at three active healthcare facility outbreaks in Kamloops; those are the Brocklehurst Gemstone Care Centre (32 total cases), Westsyde Care Residences (30), and Highridge Home and Singh House.
There were also no new cases today at The Florentine in Merritt, and the long-term care home has seen two total cases but none in the past 13 days.
There was a new COVID-19 exposure in Kamloops today, at the Sk’elep School of Excellence on the Tk’emlups reserve. That is in addition to nine other active COVID-19 exposures in the Kamloops-Thompson School District. A full list of school exposures can be found here.
Within B.C., there are now 250 cases of the virus with a “variant of concern,” after four new variant cases were reported today. Those cases including 222 cases of the B.1.1.7 U.K. variant and 28 cases of the B.1.351 South African variant.
Also, to date, 311,208 vaccine doses have been given out in B.C., and 86,865 of those are second doses. Premier John Horgan today welcomed Health Canada’s approval of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, saying it will help diversify the province’s vaccination plan.
Starting on Monday, people over the age of 90 and Indigenous people over 65 will be able to book a vaccine appointment in communities across the province.
“We ask that anyone outside of this age group waits to call until their registration window begins. Regular updates will be provided to ensure everyone has the latest registration information,” Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry said.
“In addition to our immunization program, we are regularly reviewing the public health restrictions to assess when we can safely ease them. We know many are keen to resume activities and we will open what we can when we have the confidence it is safe to do so.”
A total of 76,752 people are now considered to have recovered from COVID-19, about 92 per cent of all recorded cases.
