Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry

Image Credit: Flickr/Province of B.C.

There have been 2,206 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. over the past five days, according to B.C’s top doctor.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix provided the new numbers today, Dec. 29, during a news conference.

The new cases since the data was last reported, Dec. 24, brings the total number of people who have been infected with the virus to 50,815 since the start of the pandemic.

The new cases include 378 people in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,375 in the Fraser Health region, 44 people in the Vancouver Island Health region, 238 in the Interior Health region and 171 people in the Northern Health region. There are 7,580 active cases in B.C.

Of those, 373 people are in hospital with 80 people in critical care, Dr. Henry said, adding that 9,414 people are under active health monitoring which doesn’t include people in Northern Health. She said 41,175 people have recovered from the disease.

“Sadly there have been a large number of people dealing with COVID in long-term care and over the last five days we’ve had the tragedy of 74 British Columbians dying from COVID-19,” she said, bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 882.

“We also continue to have new healthcare outbreaks, eight of which has been called in the last weekend,” she said.

There are 56 active outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living homes and eight in acute care. Two of the recent outbreaks were reported in Vernon, at the Noric House and Heritage Square.

Almost 12,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine delivered across the province to every health region, she said. The Madeira vaccine will be arriving in B.C. today and in the coming days, she said.

“The timing is a little bit influx partly due to scheduling and of course due weather across the country,” Dr. Henry said.

It will be going to remote and isolated First Nations communities and to long-term care homes in smaller communities in the Northern, Interior and Vancouver Island regions.

The Pfizer vaccine is currently being used to immunize long term care home residents in the some North and Interior places, but particularly in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions.

Two people have had an allergic reaction to the vaccine, which were not unexpected. Both people were treated and have recovered, Dr. Henry said.

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