In the past 24 hours there has been one new COVID-19 related death in Northern Health and the daily case reports remain in triple digits.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control is reporting 123 new cases in Northern Health and 983 active cases.
That’s more than the amount of active cases in Vancouver Coastal Health which has 909 but far less than Fraser Health which is reporting 1,923.
Province-wide there were 832 new cases today and 5,697 active cases in total. In addition to the death in Northern Health, four more deaths were reported in the province for a new toll of 1,915.
Of the active cases, 330 individuals are in hospital and 148 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
There are now 71 people hospitalized in Northern Health and 19 in critical care.
There are also 22 active health care facility outbreaks in B.C. including two in Northern Health at Jubilee Lodge and Fort St. John Hospital.
From Sept. 15-21, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 75.5 per cent of cases and from Sept. 8-21, they accounted for 82.6 per cent of hospitalizations.
After factoring for age, people not vaccinated are 25.8 times more likely to be hospitalized than those fully vaccinated.
Northern Health has also released some Community Immunization Coverage Data stating that 367,374 doses have been administered which means 76 per cent of the population age 12 and older have received at least one dose and 65 per cent are fully immunized with two doses.
Prince George City central has 83 per cent who have their first dose and 71 per cent fully immunized, and the southwest of the city sees 79 per cent who are fully immunized, and in the northern portion of the city there are 72 per cent fully immunized.
The lowest numbers in the Northern Interior come out of Vanderhoof where only 57 per cent are fully immunized and in Vanderhoof Rural only 52 per cent are fully immunized.
Community immunization coverage is even lower in the Northeast area of Northern Health’s jurisdiction.
In Peace River North Rural only 46 per cent of people have their first shot, and only 38 per cent are fully immunized.
Northern Health is currently allocating ICU beds in Vancouver and Victoria for ICU patients as hospitals in the north are over capacity.
Last week, the province also had to cancel 511 non-urgent surgeries – including 167 procedures in the Northern Health region – because of the strain the pandemic has put on hospitals.
As of Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, the province is reporting 87.3 per cent or 4,046,960 of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 79.9 per cent or 3,701,696 received their second dose.
