Slight dip in B.C.’s Covid cases, four more deaths

B.C.’s Covid-19 cases saw a slight decrease today with 498 new cases reported.

That’s down from the average of the last seven days of 544.

Interior Health had 31 new cases with the provincial total now at 89,427.

There have been four new Covid-19 related deaths for a total of 1,411.

There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks.

There are 4,851 active cases, with 281 hospitalized, and 83 in intensive care.

A total of 9,472 people are under active public health monitoring due to exposure to known cases. A further 83,083 people who tested positive are considered recovered.

Around the province, there are 128 new cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 291 in Fraser Health, 12 in Island Health, 31 in Interior Health, 36 in Northern Health and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

Due to a lab sequencing issue, no new variant of concern data is available today. As of the most recent report, there have been 996 confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern identified in our province.

To date, 444,140 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,093 of which are second doses.

Vaccine appointment bookings are open for people over age 82, adding one year each day this week for people 80 and older by the end of the week, along with Indigenous peoples over 65.

Update on IH outbreaks:

·        Cottonwoods Care Centre long-term care in Kelowna has 23 cases: 20 residents and three staff.

·        Kelowna General Hospital unit 5B has six cases: three patients and three staff.

·        The Florentine in Merritt has two resident cases.