Number of new COVID cases jump to 131 in Interior Health

After two days of a relatively low — less than 100 — COVID-19 case counts in the Interior Health region, the number of new cases jumped to 131 today.

None of the new cases were the Omicron variant. There have been five of those to date in the region, according to data released today, Dec. 17, by the Ministry of Health.

In the province as a whole, there were 789 new cases, up only slightly from Thursday.

There were 286 new cases in the Vancouver Coastal region, 186 in Fraser Health, 147 on Vancouver Island and 39 in the Northern health region.

The ministry says there have now been 302 cases of the Omicron variant so far in B.C., with 143 on Vancouver Island, 93 in Vancouver Coastal, 58 in Fraser Health and one in Northern Health.

That may not tell the whole story as health officials, in an earlier news briefing, said there were 560 cases of Omicron in B.C.

READ MORE: Omicron is cancelling New Year’s and forcing limits on social activities in B.C.

There were three more deaths in the last 24 hours, none of which were in Interior Health, for a total of 2,399 since the pandemic began.

While the number of active cases has risen to 4,313 today because of the growing case numbers, hospitalizations at 191 and intensive care cases at 74 remain relatively unchanged.

Vaccination rates remain unchanged at 91.6% of those 12 and over who have received at least one dose and at 88.7% for those who have received two doses. The number of people who have received a booster dose grew by 1% to 15% of the population.

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