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B.C. reports 1,068 new COVID-19 cases

By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Published 4:16 PDT, Tue April 6, 2021

Last Updated: 4:37 PDT, Tue April 6, 2021

B.C. health authorities reported 1,068 new cases of COVID-19 today, 33 of which are epidemiologically linked. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 105,988 cases.

Of the new cases, 352 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 492 in the Fraser Health region, 73 in the Island Health region, 106 in the Interior Health region, 43 in the Northern Health region and two new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are 8,671 active cases of COVID-19 and 328 people are hospitalized, 96 of whom are in intensive care. Of the people who are hospitalized, 63 have a variant of concern—42 people with the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 20 with the P.1 (Brazil) variant, and one with the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant. A further 14,118 people are under active public health monitoring.

Health authorities reported 207 new confirmed cases that are variants of concern, bringing B.C.’s total to 3,766 cases. All but one of the new cases was in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, and 266 cases are currently active. Of the total cases, 2,838 are the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 51 are the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 877 are the P.1 (Brazil) variant.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the B.1.1.7 strain is dominant in B.C., but that in the last few weeks there has been an increase in the P.1 variant. 

“Cases have surged and people are having a much higher number of contacts, and that has meant increased numbers of people in hospital,” she said. “We know much of this transmission is happening in younger people, so that means numbers of younger people in hospital has increased, and numbers of younger people needing ICU care has increased, and that is concerning.”

Henry added that much of the increased transmission recently is due to social gatherings where people are disobeying public health guidelines.

“Unnecessary travel and social gatherings are fuelling the fire for the variant of concern transmissions as well,” she said. “The virus is adapting and is taking advantage wherever it can.”

To date, 912,056 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,474 of which are second doses. 

Sadly, there were three new virus-related deaths reported today, bringing that total to 1,489.

Active outbreaks continue at three long-term care, assisted living and independent living facilities and nine acute care facilities.

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and to find a testing centre near you: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.

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