BC health officials announce 589 new COVID-19 cases, seven more deaths

British Columbia health officials announced 589 new test-positive COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 79,262.

In a joint written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that broken down by health region, this equates to 157 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 317 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 31 in the Island Health region, 39 in the Interior Health region, and 45 in the Northern Health region.

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There are 4,665 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,040 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.

Of the active cases, 232 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 63 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been seven new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,355 deaths in British Columbia.

A total of 73,188 people who tested positive have now recovered, and to date, 252,373 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in BC, 73,808 of which are second doses.

The statement also noted, however, that today’s case information is “provisional due to delayed updates in the lab reporting system,” adding that full case information will be posted on the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) dashboard once verified.