Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Image Credit: Flickr/Province of B.C.

There were 1,005 new COVID-19 cases recorded in B.C. in the last 24 hours with 110 of those in the Interior Health region.

While the provincial total is down by a couple of hundred cases from some of the peak days recently, the number of people in hospital has grown from 409 yesterday to 425 today, April 16. Of those, 127 are in intensive care.

The brings the provincial total number of cases since the pandemic started to 117,080, according to a joint statement issued by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

"We need to stay local and stay in our neighbourhoods,” Dr. Henry and Dix said in the statement. “We need to stay outside and with our same close friends. So let's all do our part this weekend so we can stop the spread and put COVID-19 behind us."

Even outside, groups need to remain small, masks need to be worn and safe distancing practiced.

While almost 1.3 million doses of vaccines have been administered the supplies of both Pfizer and Moderna have been a problem as the province ran out of both of them this week by the time new shipments arrived.

“The delay in Moderna's shipments is disappointing,” Dix said in a separate news release. “The federal government has said it will send additional doses of Pfizer in May and June. Doses in April would be more helpful, but we appreciate the ongoing effort and commitment of the federal government.”

There are now 10,081 active cases in B.C. with 15,877 people under public health monitoring.

Of the new cases today, 536 were in the Fraser Health region, 259 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 49 in the Vancouver Island Health region and 51 in the Northern Health region.

There were six more deaths, bringing the provincial total to 1,530.

There have been 5,739 variants of concern recorded in B.C.

Most of those, 3,858, are the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and there have been 1,810 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.

Information and how and when to make vaccination appointments is available here.

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