BC sees more cases of Omicron among 437 COVID-19 infections announced Friday

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry (Gov BC/Flickr)

BC health officials announced 437 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 222,013.

In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 2,994 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 211 individuals are currently in hospital, 72 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

BC health officials have also revealed that 10 cases of the Omicron variant have now been identified in the province. The cases were identified in Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal Health and Island Health.

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Broken down by health region, the new cases and total active cases are as follows:

Fraser Health: 105 new cases, 871 total active cases
Vancouver Coastal Health: 90 new cases, 589 total active cases
Interior Health: 93 new cases, 575 total active cases
Northern Health: 22 new cases, 243 total active cases
Island Health: 127 new cases, 664 total active cases
Outside of Canada: No new cases, two total active cases

There have been three COVID-19-related deaths over the past 24 hours, for a total of 2,381 deaths in BC. This includes one death in Fraser Health, one death in Vancouver Coastal Health, and one death in Island Health.

To date, 86% (4,288,204) of eligible people five and older in BC have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.2% (4,097,320) have received their second dose.

From December 1 to 7, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 57.7% of cases, and from November 24 to December 7, they accounted for 63.5% of hospitalizations.

Due to a delayed refresh in data, an updated summary of hospitalizations by vaccine status was not provided by BC today.