Health officials are reporting 840 new COVID-19 cases today in B.C., including 320 variant of concern cases.

There were no deaths from the virus anywhere in B.C. today.

In Interior Health, there were 67 new cases reported today. There were also 421 new cases in Fraser Health, 265 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 46 in Northern Health and 39 in Island Health.

The positive-rate today was 11.1 per cent, with 840 positive cases out of 7,579 tests, which is almost double the daily average for positive cases from just two weeks ago.

Active cases have now risen to 7,062 in the province, with 312 people in hospital with the virus and 78 people in intensive care units.

Of the 320 new variant cases, 219 were the U.K. variant, 100 were the Brazil variant and one was the South African variant. There have now been 2,553 total variant cases reported, with 313 now active.

There have been two COVID-19 clusters with the P-1 Brazil variant in Interior Health, according to B.C.’s top doctor.

Dr. Bonnie Henry did not say where those clusters are but says contact tracers have been working to contain them.

“It reflects travel patterns as well. And we are seeing it replace other strains that we had of COVID. And this is one of the reasons why we put in these indoor restrictions right now.”

Another clusters of cases with the P-1 Brazil variant has been in Whistler… and on Monday, Henry ordered Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort to shut down for three weeks.

Meanwhile, 724,193 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in B.C.

And after suspending usage of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in B.C. for people under 55 years old, the province announced that starting tomorrow it will be providing that dose to people between 55 and 65 years in the Lower Mainland. The B.C. government says moving up the vaccine timeline for those age groups will “help combat high numbers of cases in the Lower Mainland.” People who in that age group can call their local pharmacy to get a vaccine appointment.