B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix provides a COVID-19 update as provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry looks on, Dec. 17, 2020.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Province of B.C.
April 03, 2021 - 4:20 PM
B.C. has recorded the highest single-day number of new cases of COVID-19 to date, with 1,072 confirmed cases since Friday.
The day before, from April 1 to April 2, there were 1,018 cases, also breaking the previous record of 1,013 from March 31.
All 2,090 of these cases, raise the total since the start of the pandemic to 102,970. Of them, 149 are in the Interior Health region. There are currently 90 people with COVID-19 in Intensive Care in B.C., though they didn't have information on hospitalizations and deaths.
Given rising case counts, Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, reissued the plea to stay close to home this long weekend.
"An important reminder for everyone is that we should not be travelling outside our community or health authority for vacation or recreation right now. Consider day trips only or staying overnight in a local campground or hotel. We have seen too many cases of people travelling outside their health authority region and not using their layers of protection, leading to outbreaks and clusters in their home community," Dr. Henry and Dix said in a press release.
"These outbreaks are avoidable, and right now we must stay within our local region - for the safety of your community and for others."
To date, 856,801 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,455 of which are second doses.
Right now, vaccine bookings for people 72 and older, Indigenous peoples 18 and over, and individuals who are clinically extremely vulnerable continue throughout the long weekend. The AstraZeneca/COVISHEILD vaccine is also available to people between the ages of 55 and 65 on the Lower Mainland - B.C.'s highest transmission area.
"In partnership with the BC Pharmacy Association, B.C. plans to expand the AstraZeneca vaccine program outside of the Lower Mainland by the end of next week to more communities throughout the province, including Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Parksville, Prince George, Quesnel, Terrace, Vernon and Victoria," Dix and Dr. Henry said.
This weekend there have been 709 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,052 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 147 in the Island Health region, 149 in the Interior Health region, 33 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Kathy Michaels or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2021