New COVID-19 restrictions expected tomorrow as B.C. case counts surge

More COVID-19 measures are coming tomorrow as cases rise in B.C.

Health officials are monitoring the increase in cases in B.C., along with other jurisdictions, and plan to outline addition COVID measures during a news conference by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix scheduled for tomorrow, according to a media release from the Ministry of Health issued today, Dec. 20.

No further details about what those measures might be were included in the media release.

This comes on the heals of 2,550 new cases of COVID-19 being detected in B.C. over the weekend, an average daily count well above what was recorded each day last week.

There were only 268 new cases in the Interior Health region, an average of 89 per day, which is lower than daily counts last week.

Of the 2,550 new cases, 911 were recorded from Friday to Saturday, 832 from Saturday to Sunday and 807 in the last 24 hours.

The Lower Mainland is the hot sport for new cases with 909 in the Vancouver Coastal health region and 877 in Fraser Health. Vancouver Island, which had low case counts for most of the pandemic, recorded 415 new cases over the weekend. The Northern Health region, which had high daily counts earlier this fall, registered 81.

There were three new deaths over the weekend, bringing the provincial total to 2,402. No one died of COVID in the Interior Health region.

There are now 5,435 active cases in B.C., the highest number since mid-October.

Despite the high case counts, the number of those in hospital (185) and in intensive care (77) remains relatively low.

Most of the new cases – 60.6% during the week of Dec. 10 to 16 – were in fully vaccinated people while 37.5% were not vaccinated at all.

The breakdown is reversed when it comes to hospitalizations with 67.5% of those hospitalized in the two weeks from Dec. 3 to 16 being unvaccinated while 28.6% were fully vaccinated.

The health ministry did not provide information on how many cases were from the Omicron variant of concern. That update will also be presented at tomorrow’s news briefing

READ MORE: COVID contact tracers in B.C. may be swamped by Omicron: Dr. Henry

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