The first case of a COVID-19 "variant of concern" has been detected in a Northern Health resident, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Monday.
The resident had travelled internationally, and tested positive while in self-isolation in another health authority, Northern Health spokesperson Eryn Collins said.
"There is no cause for concern in the Northern Health region," Collins said. "There was no contact in the Northern Health Authority region."
The case was of the more-contagious U.K. variant of the COVID-19 virus, she added.
Sixty-three new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern were reported in B.C. on Monday. A total of 880 cases of the variants have been found in the province, of which only 195 were still active, Henry said. Of those 818 were the U.K. variant, 41 were the South African variant and 21 were the Brazilian variant.
"The number of new cases is still high, higher than I would like," Henry said.
A Northern Health resident was one of the ten new COVID-related deaths reported in the province. The provincial death toll from the pandemic grew to 1,407, including 111 in the Northern Health region.
"As always, our condolences are with the families, and the care providers," Henry said.
The Northern Health region had 129 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend, according to data released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
The number of active cases in the region rose to 344 on Monday, from 311 on Friday. There were 20 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in the region, including 10 in critical care.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 5,230 cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region.
The mass vaccination clinic at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre was set to begin operations on Tuesday. As of Monday, 13,301 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the north, including 2,697 second doses.
Henry said changes will be coming soon to allow some in-person religious services in the province.
She said safety rules for holding small, outdoor religious services will likely be released in the next few days.
Early next week, the province is expecting to release rules to allow the important religious ceremonies around the Easter and Passover holidays, Henry said. Rules for broader in-person religious services are expected to come sometime in April, she added.
