COVID-19 cases in B.C. trend down: top doctor

British Columbia's provincial health officer and health minister say the province's COVID-19 case count is "trending in the right direction."

Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say public restrictions will ease if the number of COVID-19 cases continue to drop.

There are 500 new cases of #COVID19 in #BC in the past 24 hours.

There are currently 320 people in hospital, 66 of whom are in critical care. https://t.co/57Ak8fmn4r

— Adrian Dix (@adriandix) January 20, 2021

The province reported 500 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

There have been a total of 62,412 cases since the pandemic began and there are 4,345 active cases.

There have also been 14 new deaths, bringing to 1,104 the number of COVID-19 related fatalities since March.

Henry and Dix say in a joint statement that 98,125 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Dix told a news conference on Tuesday that the province was still on track to begin administering second doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday.