799 COVID cases on Tuesday

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia:

“Today, we are reporting 799 new cases, for a total of 127,048 cases in British Columbia.

“There are 8,089 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 11,792 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 117,150 people who tested positive have recovered.

“Of the active cases, 500 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 164 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

“Since we last reported, we have had 121 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 534 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 28 in the Island Health region, 96 in the Interior Health region, 16 in the Northern Health region and four new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

“There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,571 deaths in British Columbia. Our condolences are with the family, friends and caregivers of the people who have died as a result of COVID-19.

“1,671,128 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 89,457 of which are second doses.

“The first step for everyone is to register for their vaccine. Everyone in B.C. who is 18 years and older is now eligible to do so on the Get Vaccinated website.

“In our age-based program, anyone 59 and older can now take the next step of booking their appointment. We encourage you to do that right away. Our worker program continues with targeted clinics underway. This program will be further expanded as significantly more vaccine starts to arrive in our province next week.

“Health authorities are also using the available vaccine supply to target 'hot spot' communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 with dedicated clinics in many locations.

“Our limited AstraZeneca supply is being used in some of these 'hot spots,' as well as for our provincewide pharmacy program. Starting today, the AstraZeneca vaccine will be available to anyone 30 and older, starting with some of the ‘hot spot’ community clinics. As we receive enough AstraZeneca to add appointments at pharmacies, it will be made available to anyone in the province aged 30 and older. 

“We know demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine is high in many areas. Unfortunately, available supply through pharmacies in some regions will continue to be limited until additional supplies come in.

“Whether you had your vaccine last month, or are booked for the days ahead, we remind everyone to continue to use all of your layers of protection, to stay small and stay local until we have COVID-19 where we want and need it to be.”