There were 95 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern Health region on Monday.
In a joint statement released on Monday afternoon, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province saw more than 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 over the past four days.
"Today, we are reporting two periods: April 3 to 4, we had 999 cases, and in the last 24-hours, we had a further 890 cases for a two-day total of 1,889 new cases. These periods are in addition to April 1 to 2, when we reported 1,018 cases, and April 2 and 3, when we reported 1,072 cases. Those figures were provisional and have since been confirmed as 1,074 cases over April 1 to 2 and 1,077 cases over April 2 to 3," Henry and Dix said. "Combined, this results in a four-day case count of 4,040 new cases, for a total of 104,061 cases in British Columbia to date."
As of Monday, there were 8,490 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., with 318 hospitalized with COVID-19 – including 96 in intensive care, they said. The number of active cases in the Northern Health region wasn't provided.
On Thursday, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported 297 active cases in the north. Thirty people in the Northern Health region were hospitalized with COVID-19, including 13 in critical care.
"There have been 23 new COVID-19 related deaths since April 1, for a total of 1,486 deaths in British Columbia," Henry and Dix said.
A breakdown of those deaths by health authority was not provided. The Northern Health region's death toll from the pandemic, as of Thursday, was 124, according to the B.C. CDC.
"Since April 1, there have been 916 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 3,559 cases (588 are active)," Henry and Dix said. "This includes 2,771 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 51 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 737 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant."
Henry and Dix reported that a total of 893,590 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the province, up from 788,249 on Thursday. Updated vaccination numbers were't provided for the Northern Health region, which had 41,889 doses administered as of Thursday.
"The Province is moving ahead with its COVID-19 Immunization Plan ahead of schedule, and launching Get Vaccinated, B.C.'s online and telephone registration and booking system," Henry and Dix said. "As of 8 a.m. tomorrow, all people 71 years and older, Indigenous peoples 18 and older, and those who have received their 'clinically extremely vulnerable' letter in the mail may book their vaccine appointment online, by telephone through B.C.'s new provincial call-in centre or in-person at a Service BC location."
For information on how to access the Get Vaccinated system, go online to www2.gov.bc.ca/getvaccinated.html.
"The more people we can protect with vaccines, the more protection is extended to our communities, our province and Canada as a whole," Henry and Dix said. "We know this virus is constantly changing and some of the new variants can spread more easily, but the same measures we know can still stop the spread and we have safe and effective vaccines on our side now. It is more important than ever to stay on track with our vaccination programs, continue to use all our layers of protection all the time and follow the provincial health orders and guidelines."
