The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed seven more lives in the Northern Health region.
On Tuesday the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported 101 COVID-related deaths in the Northern Health area, up from 94 on Friday.
During an update on Tuesday afternoon, Health Minister Adrian Dix offered condolences to the families of the 26 people across British Columbia who succumbed to the virus over the long weekend.
"This is an extremely difficult time to grieve," Dix said. "To have such a thing occur in your family, or your circle of friends, is very difficult."
There were 135 new COVID-19 cases reported in the north over the four-day span since the last public update. Northern Health saw a significant increase in the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, rising from just 10 on Friday to 39 on Tuesday. The number of those in critical care also rose from seven on Friday, to nine on Tuesday, according to the B.C. CDC.
While the number of active cases across the province dropped by 3.6 per cent to 4,189, Northern Health saw an increase of two – from 332 on Friday to 334 on Tuesday.
"While the overall number of new cases is coming down... we're still having challenging times in the north in many communities," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said. "We need to reduce the transmission events in our community. This is not just a Lower Mainland issue."
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 74,283 cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 4,104 in the Northern Health region.
To date, 60 cases of COVID-19 variants dubbed "variants of concern" have been discovered in B.C., Henry said. That included 40 cases of the U.K. variant, 19 of the South African variant and one case of a new variant of concern from Nigeria, she said.
On the bright side, the province's deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine are resuming this week, Henry said.
"This is encouraging," she said. "The past couple weeks our supply has been limited."
As of Tuesday, a total of 171,755 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the province, including 22,199 second doses. In the Northern Health region, a total of 6,956 doses – 5,608 first doses and 1,348 second doses – have been administered, according to the B.C. CDC.
"We do know the current vaccines are very effective," Henry said. "We are focused on getting second doses for those most at risk."
When asked if they were frustrated by the vaccine supply delays that has seen Canada lag behind other countries, including the U.S., both Henry and Dix agreed it was a frustrating situation.
Decisions made in the past have left Canada without any domestic ability to produce vaccines, Dix said.
"Yes, it would be desirable to get more vaccine every day," Dix said. "We have to make sure as a country.... that this situation is dealt with in the future."
