COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to fall

Mar 18, 2022 | 3:57 PM Pete McIntyre

COVID-19 case numbers for British Columbia continued to decline on Friday, with 199 reported around the province, a decrease of 41 from Thursday.

Of that total, Interior Health led the five health regions with 72 new infections, up slightly from the 66 on Thursday.

Fraser Health was next with 52, with 43 on the Island, 18 in Vancouver Coastal and 14 in Northern Health.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID declined to 290 (decrease of eight) with 46 of those in intensive care (decrease of three).

Six new deaths were reported for an overall total of 2,966. Five of the deaths were on Vancouver Island and the other was in Fraser Health.

There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks.

The outbreak at Sidney Care Home (Island Health) has been declared over, for a total of seven facilities with ongoing outbreaks, including two in the Interior at Ponderosa and Hillside Village.

As of today, 90.8 per cent of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 86.9 per cent have had two shots, and 56.9 per cent of those 12 and older have had three doses.

From March 10-16, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 17.2 per cent of cases. From March 3-16, they accounted for 26.2 per cent of hospitalizations.