
Interior Health sees 67 new COVID-19 cases; total of three variant cases
B.C. health officials today announced an addition1,428 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed since Friday, and 28 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants of concern.
Across the province, there has now been a total of 101 variant cases and two cases of variants that are under investigation. This includes 81 of the UK variant, 20 of the South Africa variant and two of the Nigeria variants, the latter of which is under investigation. Of all of these, four are active and the remaining 97 have now recovered.
Of these confirmed variant cases, three are in the Interior Health regions. The Southern Interior’s share of new COVID-19 cases since Friday was 67.
"It is important to know that while these COVID-19 variants of concern have shown to transmit more easily, the measures we take to stop the spread are exactly the same as what we have been doing since the start of the pandemic. This is the case whether at work, at school or at home,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a joint statement issued today, Feb. 22.
"As community transmission continues, we all need to continue to use all of the layers of protection, to continue to keep to our households only, and to avoid travel unless it is absolutely necessary.”
They said everyone is susceptible to contracting the virus and passing it onto others, so each day people must recommit to taking the necessary precautions.
While case counts continue to grow, the vaccination program has started to ramp up as well. To date, 218,726 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 55,057 of which are second doses.
There are 4,560 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 7,768 people under active public health monitoring.
There are 223 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 63 of whom are in intensive care. There were also eight new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,335 deaths in British Columbia.
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