Health minister Adrian Dix looks on as chief provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provides an update on COVID-19, Saturday, March 28, 2020.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Government of B.C.
February 03, 2021 - 3:34 PM
B.C. health officials announced 414 new cases of COVID-19, Feb. 3, for a total of 68,780 cases since the start of the pandemic.
Of these cases, 63 were in the Interior Health region. Of the 4,426 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 278 people are hospitalized while 80 of those are in intensive care. There were 16 more deaths in the last day, as well.
In addition, 142,146 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 6,417 of which are second doses.
In a joint statement, Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said B.C.'s COVID-19 pandemic response is a balance between protecting communities and keeping open as much as is safe to do.
"It is about being able to do some things at a moderate level, instead of completely closing most places and activities, as we have seen elsewhere. A walk with a friend allows you to see each other, to have that important connection and still remain safe. This is the modified approach we want to continue," they said, offering a bit of insight into how provincial health orders may roll out Friday, when the previous set expires.
"To make this work for everyone, we need businesses to have robust safety plans and closely follow all of the public health orders. We also need everyone to do the same: to follow the orders we have in place and use our layers of protection, whether we are out at a restaurant, work, school or home."
Whether there are locations with high transmissions, public health teams and WorkSafeBC will increase surveillance, focus their investigations and, if need be, take further action to close the gap.
"We know the COVID-19 variants make things more challenging as the virus is more likely to spread quickly, which is why we all need to continue to make safe choices," they said.
Of all the new cases, 108 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 182 in the Fraser Health region, 26 in the Island Health region, 34 in the Northern Health region and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.
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