COVID-19 continues to kill in northern B.C.

Since April 8, the majority of COVID-related restrictions have been lifted in the province, and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has ended daily reporting of COVID-19 case statistics.

However, that doesn’t mean the danger from the disease has ended.  Between March 29 (when the Citizen wrote its last daily update on the case counts and COVID-related deaths) and May 28, 23 people have died of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region – including two people in the last week of May. The region’s death toll from the pandemic stood at 350 as of May 28, according to weekly data provided by the B.C. CDC.

Between March 29 and May 28 there have been 939 new, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern Health region, the B.C. CDC reported.

Between May 1 and May 28, 150 new, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Prince George local health area, which includes Mackenzie and the Robson Valley.

As of June 1, 11 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Northern Health region, including one person in critical care, the B.C. CDC reported.

As of May 28, 539,138 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the Northern Health region, including 6,696 fourth doses. Only 88 per cent of eligible people (ages five and older) in the Prince George local health were vaccinated with at least one dose.