The COVID-19 pandemic claimed two more lives in the Northern Health region over the weekend, according to data released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
The region's death toll from the pandemic rose to 87 on Monday, up from 85 on Friday. The deaths were two of 13 COVID-related deaths reported on Monday by B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed a total of 1,249 lives in the province.
"Our condolences go out to those care givers and families," Henry said.
A total of 131 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Northern Health region on Monday, pushing the number of active cases in the region up nearly 10 per cent, to 411.
The Northern Health region is heading the opposite direction of the province as a whole, which saw 1,236 new cases since Friday, and a roughly 10 per cent drop in active cases down to 3,976.
However, Northern Health and the province as a whole saw fewer people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday. There were 234 British Columbians hospitalized with COVID-19, including 14 in the north, according to the B.C. CDC.
Of those hospitalized, 69 (including 11 in the Northern Health region) were in critical care.
"We're still in the 400-cases-a-day (range), which is a lot. And a lot in some parts of the province," Henry said. "Our intent is to ease the restrictions we have in place, when we can."
Henry said she wants to see lower case numbers, fewer community outbreaks and ensure that some of the COVID-19 variants circulating around the globe are under control in B.C. before she would consider lifting public restrictions.
As of Monday, 25 cases of the quick-spreading U.K. variant and 15 cases of the South African variant have been detected in B.C., she said. So far the Brazilian variant and some of the American variants haven't been found in B.C., she added.
The majority of those cases were in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions, with a few on Vancouver Island and one in the Interior. No variant cases had been detected in the Northern Health region, as of Monday.
Of those cases, only three are currently still active, Henry said. The majority of the cases have been linked to travel either directly, or by catching it from somebody who did travel.
However, one case of the U.K. variant and four of the South African variant couldn't be accounted for by travel, she said.
B.C. is looking at doing a prevalence study, like one done in Ontario, which would see a whole day's worth of tests checked for COVID-19 variants, Henry said.
"It changes the game, in some ways, if it takes off and starts spreading in the community," Henry said. "If it starts to spread very quickly again, we'll have to really restrict our contacts again. Every day we stop the spread of this virus, regardless of the variant, we buy ourselves time."
Across the province, 154,496 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, of which 12,111 were second doses. In the Northern Health region 5,249 doses have been administered, including 225 second doses, the B.C. CDC reported.
B.C. health officials are preparing for the start of the mass, public vaccination campaign, Henry said. Those people who are eligible will be contacting in the coming weeks to let them know when and where they can register to get vaccinated.
"Each week this month our supply of the vaccine will increase," Henry said. "We're working on the details in every community in the province."
Also on Monday, Northern Health reported a new COVID-19 exposure at Cedars Christian School. The exposure took place on Feb. 1.
