The B.C. Ministry of Health reported 260 new cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region on Wednesday.
The number of active cases in the region grew to 1,504 as of Wednesday, up by nearly 100 from the day before. Hospitalizations were also up, with 33 people in the Northern Health region hospitalized with COVID-19, including 11 listed in intensive care, according to data released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
On Tuesday, the B.C. CDC reported 29 people in the north hospitalized with COVID-19, nine in intensive care. Across B.C., 895 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 115 of those people in intensive care.
No new COVID-related deaths were reported in the Northern Health region on Wednesday, leaving the region’s death toll from the pandemic at 281.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 22,596 cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region, of which 20,694 people have recovered.
For the week of Jan. 9 to Jan. 15, a total of 565 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Prince George local health area, according to the B.C. CDC. The Prince George local health area includes Makenzie and the Robson Valley.
As of Wednesday, 89.3 per cent of eligible British Columbians (ages five and older) had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 83.4 per cent had their second dose as well. In addition, 38 per cent of eligible adults have received a booster shot.
In the Prince George local health area, 89 per cent of people aged 12 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 84 per cent had two doses as of Jan. 17. In addition, 37 per cent of children aged five to 11 years old had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine
A total of 10.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province, including 478,848 doses in the Northern Health.
For the week of Jan. 11 to Jan. 17 the unvaccinated accounted for 21.5 per cent of new cases in B.C. Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 17, 26.9 per cent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated. The unvaccinated were more than four times more likely to be hospitalized than those with two or more doses of vaccine (70.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 unvaccinated people vs. 15.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 fully-vaccinated people).
