British Columbia is reporting 514 new cases of COVID-19 for the entire province with 5 additional deaths in that span.
Of the 514 new cases, 29 are linked to the Island Health region. The Island’s health authority has now reported 104 cases of COVID-19 over the past three days.
There are currently 4,557 active cases in British Columbia, while at least 7,000 residents remain under active public health monitoring.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says that 292 are in hospital – an increase of 1 since Jan. 28 – with 74 people in critical care as a result of the virus (a decrease of one).
Since Thursday’s numbers, there have been 134 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 223 in the Fraser Health region, 29 in the Island Health region, 71 in the Interior Health region, 57 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
There were 5 additional deaths related to the virus reported on Friday. This brings the provincial death total over the course of the pandemic to 1,189.
Also as of Friday, the total number of cases in British Columbia over the course of the pandemic has reached 66,779.
Dr. Henry says that there are currently 25 active outbreaks in long-term care facilities and nine in acute care facilities.
Health officials also said that 124,979 people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in B.C
The shortage of vaccine doses continues to present challenges, according to Dr. Henry, as immunizations have slowed across the Province.
B.C. received no new doses of the Pfizer vaccine over this past week and is set to receive a “drastically reduced” supply over the next two weeks of February.
Dr. Henry also notes that the supply of Moderna vaccine that is scheduled to arrive next week has also been reduced by about 20 per cent due to some difficulties at the Moderna processing plant.
“Starting next week, we will be getting back on track,” Dr. Henry reassured during a press conference on Friday. “It will be slower than we wanted, but we are confident that we will be able to meet our Phase One and Phase Two objectives as quickly as we possibly can.”
The provincial health officer believes that the timeline hasn’t changed to have immunizations reach more British Columbians by April.
An emotional Dr. Henry took a moment to offer a message of hope to British Columbians amid this difficult landscape, created by the pandemic.
“There is still joy and beauty in this world, even when we are faced with unrelenting uncertainty as we all have been in this past year,” she said.
Island Health
According to the latest data provided by Island Health, there are currently 233 active cases on Vancouver Island – an increase of 11 from Jan. 28.
Of the active cases, 50 (+9) are on southern Vancouver Island, 170 (+3) on central Vancouver Island and 13 (-1) on northern Vancouver Island.
Southern Vancouver Island includes the Greater Victoria region, Southern Gulf Islands and the Port Renfrew area.
Central Vancouver Island includes the Cowichan Valley, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Port Alberni and Tofino areas.
Northern Vancouver Island goes from the Comox Valley to Port Hardy but also includes surrounding areas like Alert Bay and Sointula.
Over the course of the pandemic, the Island Health region has reported 1,583 cases.
More COVID-19 information
If there is a confirmed COVID-19 case in a school, public health contacts affected school community members directly. Regional health authorities also post-school notifications on their websites, providing the date and type of notification (outbreak, cluster or exposure) for impacted schools.
The Island Health school site can be found here.
Provincial mental health and anxiety support can be found at www.bouncebackbc.ca
Island Health’s COVID-19 data breaks down North, Central and South Island case counts and lists the number of days since any new lab-diagnosed cases. You can find the data here along with any public exposures.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is more than 101.9 million. More than 2.2 million deaths have been recorded.
More to come.
Graham Cox
