COVID infections in the Northern Heath region continue to plague hospitals in the northern half of the province.
On Friday, the province reported 196 new cases in the previous 24-hour period, which raised the total number of active infections in Northern Health to 893. That’s more than Vancouver Coastal Health, which had 69 new infections over the same one-day period for a total of 833 active cases.
B.C. had 743 new cases confirmed for a total of 5,969 active cases provincewide. Of those active cases, 360 individuals have been hospitalized and 137 of them are in intensive care.
There was also one death in northern B.C. over the previous day attributed to the virus. Provincewide, there were five deaths, including three in Fraser Health and one in Interior Health.
Fraser Health continued to lead the province with 265 new cases and 2,339 active cases. Interior Health recorded 143 new cases for a total of 1,129, while Island Health totaled 70 new cases for a total of 717.
In B.C., 88.6 per cent (4,107,666) of eligible people aged 12 and older had received their first vaccination, while 88.2 per cent (3,811,076) had been given their second doses. Among adults, in the province, 89.1 per cent (3,853,731) had received their first dose and 83 per cent (3,587,996) had their second dose.
From Sept. 30- Oct. 6, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 69.4 per cent of all cases and in the two weeks from Sept. 23- Oct. 6 they accounted for 76.7 per cent of hospitalizations.
Of the 4,667 infections confirmed in B.C., in the previous week that ended Wednesday, 2,925 (62.7 per cent) were not vaccinated , 313 (6.7 per cent) were partially vaccinated and 1,429 (30.6 per cent) were fully vaccinated. The number of cases per 100,000 population over the that one-week period, Sept. 30-Oct. 6, adjusted for age eligibility, ranged from 290.9 (not vaccinated) to 88.3 (partially vaccinated) to 34.5 (fully vaccinated).
Since December 2020, the province has administered 7,937,214 doses of COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. Of the 430 people hospitalized in the province over the past two weeks ending on Wednesday, 310 (68.9 per cent) were not vaccinated, 35 (7.8 per cent) were partially vaccinated and 105 (23.3 per cent) were fully vaccinated. Hospitalizations per 100,000 population in the previous two weeks from Sept. 30-Oct. 6 ranged from 48.0 (not vaccinated) to 15.5 (partially vaccinated) to 2.4 (fully vaccinated).
The province also said Friday that provincial heath officer Dr. Bonnie Henry will announce next week a revision to the public health order next week which will require all children aged five and older to wear masks in indoor public places. That follows the Oct. 1 revised order which expanded the mask mandate to include all K-Grade 3 students in B.C.schools.
