B.C. health officials are reporting 2,491 new cases of COVID-19 over the past three days along with 17 more deaths.

There were 881 cases from Friday to Saturday, with 847 cases reported from Saturday to Sunday, and 763 from Sunday to Monday. In the Interior, there were 206 cases over the weekend.

Of the new cases, 466 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,632 were in the Fraser Health region, 82 were in Island Health, and 104 were in Northern Health.

Two of the new deaths were in people over the age of 90, seven were in their 80s, five in their 70s, two in their 60s and one in their 50s. It means the provincial COVID-19 death toll stands at 1,571 people.

There are now 484 people in hospital with COVID-19, 158 of whom are in ICU. Both those numbers are down by two from Friday’s update. Active cases in B.C. are at 8,199, down by more than 600 from Friday with another 12,340 people in self-isolation due to possible exposure to COVID-19.

In Interior Health, there are 614 active cases (down 188) with 38 people in hospital, 17 in ICU (up by six and five respectively). Five of the deaths over the weekend were in IH.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says the high transmissibility of variants of concern is leading to very worrying situations in hospitals.

“Before, if someone got sick from contact at work, there might be one or two more family members who got it, but now we are seeing everyone get it. They have whole families who are admitted to the hospital,” she said.

She said that the AstraZeneca vaccine is being offered to people between the age of 40 and 59 because of a recent spike in hospitalizations among people in that age range.

B.C. is also expecting the first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week, though its not clear how many doses are on their way to the province. Henry says public health is developing a plan for who should get this vaccine which only requires a single dose.

“It is fridge stable once its been thawed and repackaged and shipped to us. So that gives us some flexibility in targeting certain populations, particularly people who may be challenging to find for dose two,” she said.

“We have some plans and we’re working through those, and we’ll let people know when we finalize them. That’s what we are looking at right now and the team is coming up with some recommendations that will be making public as soon its finalized and we make those decisions.”

In all, the province noted that more than 1.63 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in B.C., 89,500 of which are second doses.

Second infant dies of COVID-19 in B.C.

Dr. Bonnie Henry also says an infant who lived in the Interior died of COVID-19 back in January while receiving care at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

This is the youngest person to die of COVID-19 in the province, though its not clear where the infant lived or when exactly the death occurred.

Few other details have been released, but Henry announced the death today, noting the BC Coroners Service has just wrapped its investigation into previous deaths that had not been attributed to the virus. She says the coroners were able to link this death, though she adds no details are being shared because of privacy concerns.

Last week, Henry confirmed that another child under the age of two who lived in Fraser Health died at BC Children’s Hospital earlier this month.