The COVID-19 pandemic claimed another life in the Northern Health region over the weekend, Health Minister Adrian Dix said on Monday.
The death, one of 20 in B.C. reported by Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Monday, brings the region's death toll from the pandemic to 143.
Of those who died of COVID since Friday, 15 were 70 or older, but two were in their 40s and two in their 50s, Henry said.
"Nobody is immune..." she said. "We are moving in the right direction, but as you can see from our numbers, COVID-19 is still being transmitted in our communities."
Between Friday and Monday, B.C. reported 1,759 new cases of COVID-19 – including 52 in the Northern Health region.
The active cases in the north remained steady at 157, but the number of people hospitalized with COVID in the region dropped from 14 to 11. Four of those patients were in critical care, down from seven on Friday, according to data released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 7,357 people in northern B.C have been infected with COVID-19, of which 7,056 have recovered.
The number of active cases in the province dropped from 6,757 on Friday to 6,132 on Monday, Henry said.
"There is a vision for us getting out of this pandemic, and getting back to those connections we need as social beings," she said. "Immunization is going to get us there, but... we know we aren't safe until everybody is protected."
Henry urged all British Columbians 18 and older to register online at getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca – or by phoning 1-833-838-2323 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily. As of 1:40 p.m. on Monday, Northern Health was booking vaccination appointments for people aged 43 and older and all Indigenous adults and pregnant women.
Henry said with the supply of vaccine available, the vaccination campaign will be moving quickly through the age brackets. Starting on Wednesday, the province will be sharing maps showing the vaccination rate in regions around the province, she added.
"Over two million of us have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine," she said.
As of Monday, the province had administered almost 2.16 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, of which 106,058 were second doses.
The latest vaccination data for the Northern Health region wasn't available from the B.C. CDC as of Monday afternoon. As of Friday's update, 102,629 doses had been administered in the region, including 3,271 second doses.
