473 new COVID-19 cases in Interior Health; 3,798 in B.C.

There were 473 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the Interior Health region in the last 24 hours.

That’s a big increase from the 270 cases reported yesterday but shy of the record 501 reported on Dec. 30.

In B.C., as a whole, there were 3,798 new cases, also a big jump from the 2,542 reported yesterday but shy of the record 4,383, also set on Dec. 30.

There were 1,739 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 840 in Vancouver Coastal, 566 on Vancouver Island and 179 in Northern Health, according to a news release issued by the Province of B.C. today, Jan. 5.

There have been no new deaths in the past 24 hours but there are a record 29,967 active cases.

Despite the huge increase in case numbers the severity of the new Omicron variant remains low. There are now 317 people in hospital, which is part of a gradual growth in the number of hospitalizations.

There are 83 people in intensive care units, which is actually a drop from 86 yesterday.

The news release does not include the number of cases that are the Omicron variant, but provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said yesterday that 80% of the cases in B.C. are Omicron.

READ MORE: Omicron variant makes up 80% of COVID-19 case in B.C.

The vaccination rate for those 12 and over with at least one dose remains at 92%. Those with two doses increased slightly to 89.3% while those with three doses climbed to 23.1% today from 20.7% yesterday.

In the past week, from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3, 83.8% of new cases are in people who are fully vaccinated versus 13.8% for unvaccinated people.

But 48.6% of those hospitalized in the last two weeks, from Dec. 21 to 31, were not vaccinated versus 48.6% who were fully vaccinated.

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