Latest COVID wave to last for weeks: doctor

VICTORIA - British Columbia's provincial health officer says the current wave of COVID-19 infections is expected to continue for several more weeks.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says many people who have contracted the highly transmissible Omicron variant are fully vaccinated and their illness has been relatively mild.

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She says hospitalization rates are going up and those who are unvaccinated are at highest risk of requiring care.

Henry says three people in their 20s and another in their 30s are currently in intensive care in B.C., and all of them are unvaccinated.

She says seeing younger people in ICU is causing distress for health-care workers so it's up to everyone to assess their personal risk for contracting COVID-19.

Henry is calling on everyone to continue with their social connections outside and virtually as some people are feeling battered by wave after wave of the pandemic storm.