Northern B.C. communities continue to be plagued by COVID-19 cases, with no immediate end in sight to the pandemic’s fourth wave that flared up in late August
Northern Health, which serves about 300,000 people, reported 133 new cases on Friday and two deaths attributed to the virus, among 10 deaths in the province over the previous 24-hour period.
Although it has the fewest number of residents compared to the other four health regions, Northern Health continues to be the province’s hot spot for COVID. There are now 821 active cases in the northern half of the province. Local health areas in the region remain under stricter health orders compared to the rest of the province.
Fraser Health, the most populous health region in B.C., with about 1.9 million people, reported 329 new cases for a total of 2,153 active cases. There were four new deaths from COVID reported Friday.
Vancouver Coastal Health (pop. 1.25 million) had 74 new cases and 678 active cases, Island Health (pop. 850,000) had 114 new cases and 546 active cases, while Interior Health (pop. 742,000) reported 108 new cases and 664 active cases. Interior also had four new deaths.
In B.C. there were 758 new cases and 4,961 active cases as of Friday. Of the active cases, 434 required hospitalization and 155 of them were being treated in intensive care. Since the pandemic began in January 2020, there have been 204,330 cases in the province.
Among the 33 active outbreaks in B.C., four are in Northern Health’s jurisdiction. That includes the long-term care facility at Wrinch Memorial Hospital in Hazelton, and acute-care outbreaks at University Hospital of Northern B.C., in Prince George, G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital in Quesnel and Bulkley Valley District Hospital in Smithers.
More British Columbians are getting vaccinated. As of Thursday, 89.8 per cent (4,160,780) of eligible people aged 12 and older had received their first dose, while 84.9 per cent (3,933,596) had their second doses.
During the one-week period from Oct. 20-26, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 64.7 per cent of COVID cases, and from Oct. 13-26, they accounted for 74.0 per cent of hospitalizations.
Of the 4,066 cases in B.C. in the past week, 2,365 (58.2 per cent) were not vaccinated, 266 (6.5 per cent) were partially vaccinated and 1,435 (35.3 per cent) were fully vaccinated.
Of the 458 hospitalized COVID patients in the province in the past two weeks, 310 (67.7 per cent) were not vaccinated, 29 were partially vaccinated and 119 (26 per cent) were fully vaccinated.
The cases per 100,000 population from Oct. 20-26, after adjusting for age of vaccine eligibility, were: 288.6 (not vaccinated), 87.1 (partially vaccinated) and 33.4 (fully vaccinated). The cases hospitalized from Oct. 13-26 per 100,000 population were: 57.0 (not vaccinated), 12.6 (partially vaccinated) and 2.6 (fully vaccinated).
