There were 501 new COVID-19 cases reported today in B.C., as hospitalizations and average cases continued to rise.

Of the new cases, 205 were in Interior Health, while there were 139 in Fraser Health, 92 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 35 in Northern Health, 28 in Island Health and two in out-of-province residents.

There was also one death from the virus reported today, in Island Health.

Hospitalizations have risen to 111 compared to 102 yesterday, and there are 51 patients in intensive care with the virus compared to 47 a day ago.

It remains unclear how many new daily cases nor how many people in hospital are fully vaccinated or not, since the B.C. government has not been sharing that information publicly. This week, the Saskatchewan government opted to start including that information in its daily updates to its residents.

Health officials in B.C. maintain, though, that the vast majority of hospitalizations are people with one or no vaccine doses.

Active cases have risen to 5,296, which is 206 more cases than yesterday. In the Interior there are 3,084 active cases, which is a rise of 102 from yesterday’s update.

There are now 73.5 per cent of people 12 and older in B.C. who are fully vaccinated, and 82.7 per cent of people 12 and older have received at least one dose.

Another 17,078 vaccine doses were distributed in the past day, with 3,641 people receiving a first dose and 13,437 people getting their second. In total, 7,248,039 vaccine doses have been administered since December.