One year after having to postpone elective surgeries in B.C. hospitals in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials say almost all of those postponed surgeries are now done.

The province says 95 per cent of the 15,373 surgeries that were delayed last spring have now been done, which is up from 90 per cent in early January.

Between Nov. 13, 2020 and Feb. 6, there were more than 78,000 surgeries done in B.C. hospitals.

The elective surgery waitlist is now at 84,075 patients, which is 10 per cent lower than the wait list peak in late-May of 2020, of more than 93,000 patients.

Since fully ramping back up in June for doing elective surgeries, the province has done just under 6,000 extra surgeries than what would’ve been done otherwise.

Initially, when surgeries first resumed 10 months ago, Health Minister Adrian Dix said it would take up to two years to catch up on surgeries that were postponed by the pandemic.

So far, those have cost $187.5 million to do, with most of the costs related to hiring more emergency room staff and having ER staff work in the evenings and weekends.

More to come.