320 New Variant of Concern COVID-19 cases found in BC

(Files by Dione Wearmouth-MyPGNow)

Provincial Health Officer, Dr.Bonnie Henry says there has been exponential growth in BC’s COVID-19 case counts recently.

This comes as the province saw 850 new cases, while the North accounted for about 5% of which as the region saw 46.

Northern Health now has 297 active cases, while 32 people are in hospital; 12 of whom are in ICU.

There were 67 new cases announced in Interior Health.

320 new Variant of Concern cases were identified across BC as there are now 313 active and the remaining have recovered.

Across BC there are 7,062 active COVID-19 cases, while 312 people are battling the virus in hospital, 78 of whom are in ICU.

A further 90,401 people who tested positive have recovered.

To date, 724,193 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in BC, 87,319 of which are second doses.

Meanwhile, Northern Health’s vaccine rollout program continues to push forward, as communities have started vaccinating those aged 73 and up.

Northern Health urges Northern residents to check the NH website for their community-specific age guidelines before calling for an appointment.

“We are asking people for your help – particularly over the next three weeks – to push our curve back down again,” says Henry, “This means staying small, staying outside and staying with our same group of close contacts.”