BC health officials announce 550 new COVID-19 cases, two more deaths

British Columbia health officials announced 550 new test-positive COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 85,119.

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 133 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 319 new cases in the Fraser Health region, seven in the Island Health region, 36 in the Interior Health region, 52 in the Northern Health region, and three new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

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There are 4,869 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,971 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.

Of the active cases, 249 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 68 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been two new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,393 deaths in British Columbia.

There have been 182 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern, for a total of 576 cases in BC. Of the total cases, 113 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 530 cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 33 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant, and 13 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.

A total of 78,770 people who tested positive have recovered, and to date, 343,381 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in BC, 86,938 of which are second doses.

“Today marks a sombre milestone: one year since the first person in British Columbia died as a result of COVID-19,” the statement said. “Through the loss and uncertainty that has come with this pandemic, we have seen incredible resilience, as people throughout our province have adapted to the challenges COVID-19 has brought.”

Now, with every new person who is vaccinated, “we can take comfort in knowing with each immunization, we all benefit – Elders, seniors, families and communities. Let’s keep moving forward and doing our part to put COVID-19 behind us.”