British Columbia health officials have reported 87 new COVID-19 cases and one death since their last update on June 22.
The total number of reported cases in British Columbia climbs to 147,271 while the death toll stands at 1,744.
There are 1,119 currently active cases in the province, 109 people in hospital — 41 of whom are in intensive care.
Of the 87 new cases reported by health officials on Wednesday, 13 were recorded in Vancouver Coastal Health, 30 were in Fraser Health, three were in Island Health and 41 were in Interior Health. There were no new cases reported in the Northern Health region.
A total of 144,383 people in B.C. have recovered from COVID-19 while more than 4.5 million doses of vaccine have been administered province-wide.
Today’s figures were released to the media a statement, in which, the province says there has been a data correction in both the total number of cases and percentage of those immunized. The province says three previously reported cases have been “removed” while the percentages of those who have received second doses have increased because those doses had been ” incorrectly classified” as first doses.
The provincial government also said in its statement that 77 per cent of all adults in B.C. and 76 per cent of those 12 and older have received their first dose of vaccine while nearly a quarter of those 12 and older in B.C. have received their second dose.
“We are progressing well, and we need to keep going. For every person who gets vaccinated, it will allow us to gradually transition and safely reopen many things that have been on hold. Our approach in B.C. will continue to be a ‘dimmer switch’ instead of a ‘light switch’ approach,” the province’s statement reads.
Currently, there are 25 active cases, three people in hospital — two of whom are in critical care — on Vancouver Island.
When it comes to active cases, there are 10 cases in the South Island, 14 cases in Central Island, and just one case in the North Island.
In the past 24 hours, there were 9,053 doses of vaccine administered on Vancouver Island. Of those, 359 doses were AstraZeneca, 8,231 doses were Moderna and 913 doses were Pfizer. A total of 746,918 doses of vaccine have been administered Island-wide, 20 per cent of which are second doses.
According to Island Health, eight per cent of all cases identified in the region over the past seven days have been linked to international travel, compared to less than one per cent in the previous eight to 14 day period.
Island Health says first dose vaccinations have started to level off so they are trying new measures to get more people vaccinated. Starting Monday they opened 12+ pop-up clinics in Lake Cowichan and at Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo.
“The first doses have been leveling off and now we just have to have new approaches to get those people who may be on the fence about getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Mike Benusic, Island Health Medical Health Officer.
In April and May Island Health says it was providing about 80,000 first doses every week. Last week that number was 6,000. But Benusic says the drop off is expected since 76.8 per cent of eligible adults in Island Health have already received a first dose. 22.8 per cent have received a second dose.
But the push is still on to get as many people vaccinated as possible, so Benusic says expect to see more pop-up clinics like the ones in Nanaimo and Lake Cowichan across the island in the weeks and months ahead.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 5,156 cases identified, 41 deaths and 5,072 recoveries in the Island Health region.
Nicholas Pescod
