B.C. gets break from rising Covid cases

B.C.’s Covid-19 numbers were lower on Tuesday with 873 new cases, but that could change.

“Due to a delay in the Public Health Reporting Data Warehouse lab system, these numbers are preliminary and may be adjusted once confirmed with PHRDW data,” a statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said.

The province’s seven-day daily average going into Tuesday was 1,129.

Of the new cases, 218 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (25.0 per cent), 512 were in Fraser Health (58.6 per cent), 43 in Island Health (4.9 per cent), 72 in Interior Health (8.2 per cent) and 28 in Northern Health (3.2 per cent).

There are 9,756 active cases in the province, with 377 people in hospital, 116 in critical or intensive care.

There have been two new Covid-related deaths, for a total of 1,515 deaths in B.C.

There are currently 5,221 confirmed Covid-19 cases that are variants of concern. Of the total, 258 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 3,627 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 65 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 1,529 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.

In B.C., 1,148,993 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, 87,785 of which are second doses.

“People 65 and older, Indigenous peoples 18 and over, and individuals who have received their ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ letter are now eligible to receive their vaccine. People 55 to 65 may also book appointments for the AstraZeneca vaccine at pharmacies throughout the province,” Henry and Dix stated.

Henry and Dix added the parallel worker program is currently focused on transmission hot spots – high-risk workplaces in the highest-risk communities.

“We are systematically working through the immunization of our first responders, school staff and child care workers in these communities, and in the coming weeks will expand into more communities as vaccine supplies allow,” the officials said.

Dix and Henry concluded their statement by noting this week is National Laboratory Week.

“It is our time to thank the many, many people who are working in our laboratories to support our pandemic response. Let’s show our appreciation by staying close to home as much as possible and doing all we can to stop the spread of Covid-19.”