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One person has died in B.C. since yesterday, someone in their 80s infected as part of the recent outbreak at Richmond Hospital.

Additional death following hospital outbreak

By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Published 3:49 PDT, Thu June 17, 2021

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A person in their 80s has died in connection to the COVID-19 outbreak at Richmond Hospital.

This is the latest death related to the virus, which so far has claimed the lives of 1,739 British Columbians.

The latest local data shows that cases in Richmond continue to drop sharply, with 28 new cases between June 6 and 12. Last week, this number was 41; a month ago it was 108; two months ago it was over 200.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reported 120 new cases of COVID-19 today. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 146,794 cases.

Of the new cases, 13 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 53 in the Fraser Health region, five in the Island Health region, 43 in the Interior Health region, five in the Northern Health region and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.

There are 1,451 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 131 of those people are hospitalized, 44 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 4,231,871 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 768,008 of those are second doses. This means that 76.5 per cent of adults and 74.8 per cent of those age 12-plus have received a dose.

“We are pleased to see that across the board, first doses continue to progress well,” said Henry.

She added that second doses are accelerating, with tens of thousands of people each day receiving invitation notices to book their second dose.

Delivery of the Pfizer vaccine will be reduced in the first two weeks of July, although B.C. expects a lot of Moderna vaccine to arrive soon.

“We know these speed bumps happen, and while disappointing they’re not unexpected given the complexity of the global immunization efforts,” said Henry.

She noted that the supply change isn’t expected to affect the province’s vaccination timeline.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is now recommending that those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine as their first dose should get an mRNA vaccine—Pfizer or Moderna—as their second dose. However, B.C. has not changed its recommendation on second doses.

“The very real-world experience and evidence shows us that we have good protection across the board with both vaccines in our community,” said Henry. “Mixing an mRNA after a dose of AstraZeneca may give some boost to the immune system. But we don’t know whether that translates into whether you’re better protected or not. As a result, here in B.C., our advice has not changed. You make the choice that is right for you.”

Henry reported one healthcare outbreak over. Active outbreaks continue at three long-term care, assisted living and independent living 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.