1,393 new COVID cases in Interior Health over weekend

Daily COVID case counts for B.C. dropped over the weekend but the Interior Health region remains close to record levels.

There were 1,393 new cases in Interior Health over the weekend, an average of 464 a day. The Province of B.C. news release issued today, Jan. 10, doesn’t break those numbers down by cases per day but the record high set in Interior Health was 526 on Friday.

The provincial record was set Dec. 30 with 4,483 new cases.

From Friday to Saturday there were 2,573 new cases in B.C. From Saturday to Sunday there were 2,287 and in the last 24 hours 2,106.

The Fraser Health region led the way with the most cases over the weekend with 2,672. There were 1,249 on Vancouver Island, 1,067 in Vancouver Coastal and 584 in the Northern Health region.

READ MORE: COVID-19 rapid tests unavailable in Kelowna, West Kelowna

Seven more people have died from COVID but none in Interior Health. That brings the provincial death toll to 2,446.

There are 34,551 active cases in B.C. with 431 people in hospital, 95 of whom are in intensive care. That’s near a record for hospitalizations, which peaked at 515 in April. But the Omicron variant does not yet seem as serious as Delta since the peak for intensive care use was 178, also in April.

Vaccination rates for those 12 and over with at least one dose climbed slightly over the weekend to 92.2% while those with two doses remained at 89.4%. Those with booster shots climbed more than 4% to 27.7%.

There have been seven new outbreaks in health care facilities including one in the Interior Health region at Sun Pointe Village.

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.