A dozen new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Northern Health region on Tuesday.
A joint statement by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said there were 515 new cases of COVID reported in the province on Tuesday, including 12 in the north.
"There are 6,020 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 426 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 141 of whom are in intensive care," Henry and Dix said. "There have been two new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,624 deaths in British Columbia. Our condolences are with the family, friends and caregivers of the people who have died as a result of COVID-19."
The number of active cases and hospitalizations in the Northern Health region wasn't provided, and wasn't available from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control as of Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday, Northern Health ordered the closure of a pair of Quesnel businesses because of COVID-19 outbreaks. MikeGroSite Consulting LTD and Dewan Enterprise LTD were both ordered to close until May 20.
The business closures were the first in the Northern Health region, since the province put the Expedited Workplace Closure order in effect on April 12.
Across the province, almost 2.22 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered, Henry and Dix said. Of those doses, 110,516 were second doses.
"Our clinics are ramped up and we have ample vaccine supply. Now, it is your turn to step forward and get protected with your COVID-19 vaccine," Henry and Dix said. "We are calling on every adult in our province to join our efforts and register for your vaccine today. Last week, almost 400,000 people registered for their vaccine. We can break that record this week."
To register, go online to getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca or phone 1-833-838-2323 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily.
As of Tuesday, Northern Health was booking vaccination appointments in Prince George for people aged 40 to 42 years old and older, pregnant women 16 years old and older, and all Indigenous adults.
The province is currently vaccinating everyone 18 and older in 35 high-transmission communities. In the Northern Health region, those communities are Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, the Fort Nelson area and Fort St. James area.
Since the start of the pandemic, there had been 136,623 cases of COVID-19 in B.C., of which 128,149 people had recovered.
"The number of people protected with a COVID-19 vaccine is going up every day, and the number of people requiring care in hospital is trending down. This is what we want to see and what we want to keep going," Henry and Dix said. "Like it has been since the start of the pandemic, small efforts make a big difference: taking two minutes to register, getting vaccinated when it is your turn, staying small and staying local. Together, we'll get through this storm."
