697 COVID cases for Tuesday

There are 697 new cases of COVID-19 in BC, including 16 epi-linked cases, for a total of 132,353 cases in British Columbia.

There has been 1 new COVID-19 related death, for a total of 1,597 deaths in British Columbia.

New cases by health authority: Coastal - 142 new cases Fraser - 456 new cases Island - 19 new cases Interior - 65 new cases Northern - 14 new cases Outside Canada - 1 new case.

There are 7,161 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 10,961 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.

There are 486 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 173 of whom are in ICU. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

1,910,162 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 92,244 of which are second doses.

All pregnant people who are age 16+ in BC are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccines as a priority population through B.C.'s Immunization Plan.

If you are pregnant, you can get vaccinated quickly following these two steps:

1. Register, if you haven’t already, at https://t.co/RDr3YpKmrq
2. Then phone 1-833-838-2323 to book — tell them you are pregnant. #CovidBC (2/2)

— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) May 4, 2021

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the increasing vaccine shipments could see the estimated 16-week interval between the first and second shots reduced.