The COVID-19 pandemic claimed five more lives in the Northern Health region over the Christmas weekend.
Since the last update on Christmas Eve, the region saw five COVID-19-related deaths and 171 new cases, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Tuesday. The deaths in the north were among 74 COVID-19-related deaths across the province since Dec. 24, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said. The province's death toll from the pandemic grew to 882 on Tuesday, including 26 people from the Northern Health region.
"These are very difficult moments," Dix said. "We all know this is a very difficult period to lose somebody."
Throughout B.C., 2,206 new cases of COVID-19 were reported over the days since the last public update. However, the number of active cases in the province dropped to 7,580 from 8,865 on Dec. 24.
There were 373 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, Henry said, including 80 in critical care.
The number of active cases in the north wasn't provided, but on Tuesday the B.C. Centre for Disease control reported 515 active cases in the Northern Health region – just one less than the record set on Dec. 24.
There were 46 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the north, including 16 in intensive care, the B.C. CDC reported.
As of Tuesday, there had been a total of 50,815 cases of COVID-19 in B.C. since the start of the pandemic, including 1,890 in the Northern Health region.
