The COVID-19 pandemic claimed another life in the Northern Health region, the B.C. Ministry of Health reported on Friday.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 252 COVID-related deaths in the Northern Health region – 11 of which were reported this week.
The ministry reported 31 new cases of COVID-19 in the north on Friday. The number of active cases in the region dropped to 381, down from 414 on Thursday and 528 at the beginning of the week.
Thirty-eight residents of the Northern Health region remained hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Friday, of which 14 were listed in intensive care, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 17,390 cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region, of which 16,728 people have recovered.
Northern Health reported a new COVID-19 exposure at Springwood Elementary School. The exposure took place Nov. 10, Nov. 12 and Nov. 15-18.
As of Friday, 91 per cent of eligible British Columbians (aged 12 and older) had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 87.6 per cent were fully vaccinated. As of Nov. 25, 81 per cent of eligible people in the Prince George local health area were fully vaccinated, according to the B.C. CDC.
B.C. is planning to begin vaccinating children between the ages of five and 11 starting on Monday.
A total of 404,820 doses had been administered in the Northern Health region as of Friday.
In a joint statement issued on Friday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said there has been no cases of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 detected in B.C.
“The BC Centre for Disease Control's public health lab has sequenced over 90,000 virus isolates in B.C. and will continue to use whole genome sequencing to monitor for all variants circulating in B.C., including this new VOC Omicron,” Henry and Dix said in the statement. "In addition, public health will be working with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canada Border Services Agency to identify any people recently returned from the areas of concern to arrange testing and to ensure they remain well.”
Henry and Dix said they supported the measures taken by the federal government to reduce the chances of Omicron coming to Canada.
“We do not yet know the impact this new VOC will have on transmission or of severity of illness, but taking this immediate precautionary action is prudent,” they said. “So far, all of the Health Canada-approved vaccines are highly effective and provide strong protection against all variants. We will monitor the data on this new VOC to ensure that will continue to be the case. Reducing transmission and having high levels of protection through vaccination continues to be our best defence against all variants of COVID-19.”
