Even with 509 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths reported today, the province is optimistic about the road ahead.
Provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says thanks to vaccines, British Columbians are “finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”
To date, 75,914 people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in B.C.
That includes thousands of people working and living in long-term care homes, health-care workers and those in remote or at-risk Indigenous communities, who have all received their first doses.
However, B.C. officials’ enthusiasm was tempered by the news of a short-term delay in the delivery of some of the Pfizer vaccines to B.C. in the coming weeks, as the company upgrades its production facility.
“We are working closely with the federal government to determine how this might impact our immunization rollout in the immediate term, and we will have more to share in the coming days,” she said.
As for today’s briefing, there are now 60,117 cases in British Columbia, including 4,604 active ones.
There are 349 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 68 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining are recovering at home in self-isolation.
Over the past 24 hours there have been:
- 101 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region,
- 260 new cases in the Fraser Health region,
- 13 in the Island Health region,
- 86 in the Interior Health region,
- 49 in the Northern Health region and
- no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
Dr. Henry says we must never forget how far we have come by working together.
“Over the past months, we have all made sacrifices for the health of our families and communities, and now more than ever we need to hold the line and stop transmission of COVID-19 as our vaccination program ramps up,” she added.
