Pandemic claims four more lives in the Northern Health region

The COVID-19 pandemic claimed four lives in the Northern Health region over the weekend, the B.C. Ministry of Health reported on Monday.

The deaths bring the region’s death toll from the pandemic to 261.

A total of 115 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Northern Health region over the weekend, the ministry reported. As of Monday, there were 342 active cases in the region – down from 351 on Friday.

There were 25 Northern Health residents hospitalized with COVID as of Monday, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported. Of those, nine were in listed in intensive care.

Since the start of the pandemic there have been 17,855 cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region, of which 17,236 people have recovered.

As of Monday, 407,530 doses of COVID-19 had been administered in the Northern Health region.

As of Dec. 2, only one per cent of children aged five to 11 years old had received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the Prince George local health area. Some local health areas in the Lower Mainland had vaccination rates of 10 to 13 per cent, for children five to 11.

For people aged 12 and older in the Prince George local health area, 88 per cent had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82 per cent were fully vaccinated as of Dec. 2, the B.C. CDC reported.

As of Monday, 85.5 per cent of eligible British Columbians (ages five and up) had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82 per cent were fully vaccinated, the Ministry of Health reported.

Between Nov. 26 and Dec. 2, 54.1 per cent of new COVID-19 cases were reported in unvaccinated people. Between Nov. 19 and Dec. 2, 61.5 per cent of people hospitalized with COVID were unvaccinated.