COVID-19 death toll passes 2,000 mark in B.C.

Five people died of COVID-19 in B.C. in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the pandemic to 2001.

One of the people who died was living in the Interior Health region.

There were 743 new COVID-19 cases in B.C. in the last 24 hours with 143 of them being in the Interior Health region. That’s on par with what’s been happening in recent weeks.

There were 265 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 196 in the Northern Health region, 70 on Vancouver Island and 69 in Vancouver Coastal, according to a Ministry of Health news release issued today, Oct. 8.

There are 5,969 active cases with 1,129 in Interior Health. There are 360 people in B.C. hospitals with COVID with 137 in intensive care.

An outbreak has been declared at Haven Hill Retirement Centre in Penticton.

In the week of Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, 62.7% of those infected were unvaccinated and 30.6% were fully vaccinated.

In the two week period from Sept. 23 to Oct. 6, 68.9% of those hospitalized were unvaccinated while 23.3% were fully vaccinated.

READ MORE: Trying to get a medical exemption to the COVID vaccine? Forget it


To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submitphotos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

Join the Conversation!

Want to share your thoughts, add context, or connect with others in your community? Create a free account to comment on stories, ask questions, and join meaningful discussions on our new site.

Leave a Reply

Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics