Province administers highest number of vaccine doses in one day, announces 508 new COVID-19 cases

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British Columbia is reporting 508 new cases of COVID-19, a day after the province administered the highest number of vaccine doses in one day.

Of the 508 new cases, 22 are linked to the Island Health region.

There are currently 4,486 active cases in British Columbia, while 7,699 residents remain under active public health monitoring.

Dr. Reka Gustafson, filling in for Dr. Bonnie Henry, says that 217 people are in hospital – a decrease of 7 since Feb. 18 – with 61 people in critical care as a result of the virus (an increase of one).

Since Thursday’s numbers, there have been 116 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 286 in the Fraser Health region, 22 in the Island Health region, 59 in the Interior Health region, 25 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There were six additional deaths related to the virus on Friday. This brings the provincial death total over the course of the pandemic to 1,327.

Also as of Friday, the total number of cases in British Columbia over the course of the pandemic has reached 75,835.

Currently, there are 13 active COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term health care facilities and six in acute care centres.

In regards to variants, Dr. Gustafson said there are currently 72 cases in British Columbia – 52 of those variant cases are of the B117 type (U.K.) and 20 are the B1351 type (South Africa).

Vaccine Details

Health officials said, to date, 192,942 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province, 36,923 of those were second doses.

According to Dr. Gustafson, yesterday the province administered the highest number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to date.

Officials say 12,251 people received the COVID-19 vaccine in British Columbia on Thursday, Feb. 18.

More than half of the doses administered yesterday were second doses as the Province says 5,280 were first doses and 6,971 were second doses.

“This is very good news because with every individual that is protected through vaccination means we are all safer,” said Dr. Gustafson.

She also took a moment to acknowledge the “encouraging” data related to long-term care facilities.

“We are seeing a decline in outbreaks and we are seeing a local assessment of effectiveness is showing us that there is substantial protection in the frail elderly from vaccination,” Dr. Gustafson added.

“We have not yet eliminated outbreaks completely, but we have seen strong results of vaccine effectiveness.”

Adrian Dix noted that the big complication that remains in regards to the vaccination program is supply, however, he believes that 10 per cent of the province will be immunized by the end of March.

“So far, the campaign has been delivered on the ground in a way that should inspire confidence in everybody and I’m very proud of all of the teams involved,” Dix said on Friday, indicating that he feels the program has been successful so far.

Health Minister Dix also suggests that 45,000 more doses of the vaccine are expected by next week.

Island Health

According to the latest data provided by Island Health, there are currently 159 active cases on Vancouver Island.

Of the active cases, 43 (-1) are on southern Vancouver Island, 96 (-1) on central Vancouver Island and 20 (+8) 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 2,056 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 110.5 million. More than 2.44 million deaths have been recorded.

Graham Cox
April Lawrence

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