BC health officials announce over 500 new COVID-19 cases

British Columbia health officials announced on Tuesday that there have been 519 new test-positive COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 223,661.

In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 3,171 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 191 individuals are currently hospitalized and 81 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

BC hasn’t seen a daily case count this high since November 13.

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New cases and total active cases are broken down by health region as follows:

• Fraser Health: 110 new cases, 872 total active cases
• Vancouver Coastal Health: 106 new cases, 669 total active cases
• Interior Health: 145 new cases, 612 total active cases
• Northern Health: 34 new cases, 213 total active cases
• Island Health: 123 new cases, 804 total active cases
• Outside of Canada: One new case, one total active case

There have been 44 cases of the Omicron variant identified in BC.

There have been no new COVID-19-related deaths, leaving a total of 2,386 deaths in British Columbia.

To date, 86.6% (4,316,478) of eligible people five and older in BC have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.4% (4,105,425) have received their second dose.

Due to a delay in refreshing data, the following information is from December 13:

From December 3 to December 9, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 54.9% of cases, and from November 26 to December 9, they accounted for 67.9% of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (December 3 to 9) – Total 2,429

• Not vaccinated: 1,262 (52%)
• Partially vaccinated: 71 (2.9%)
• Fully vaccinated: 1,096 (45.1%)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (November 26 to December 9) – Total 162

• Not vaccinated: 102 (63%)
• Partially vaccinated: 8 (4.9%)
• Fully vaccinated: 52 (32.1%)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (December 3 to 9) 

• Not vaccinated: 161.3
• Partially vaccinated: 35.8
• Fully vaccinated: 24.3

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (November 26 to December 9)

• Not vaccinated: 21.8
• Partially vaccinated: 6.3
• Fully vaccinated: 1.1