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COVID-19 case counts in B.C. continue to rise.

Another new COVID-19 case record in B.C.

Published 4:44 PST, Wed December 22, 2021

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B.C. health officials reported 1,474 new cases of COVID-19 today, another new single-day record. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 231,117 cases.

In a news release, the province said the number of new cases is provisional due to a delayed data refresh. An update on cases of the Omicron variant of concern will be provided tomorrow.

Of today’s new cases, 711 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond)—more than the entire province’s total just one week ago (584).

There were 435 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 176 in the Island Health region, 113 in the Interior Health region, 39 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

Locally, Richmond’s case count rose to 106 last week (Dec. 12 to 18). This is a seven-month high and does not reflect the last two days’ record high province-wide case counts.

There are 7,253 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., a 900-case increase for the second consecutive day. Of those people, 187 are hospitalized and 71 of those in hospital are in intensive care.

To date, 9,219,326 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 4,122,434 of those are second doses and 764,498 are third doses.

This means that 92.1 per cent of adults, 91.8 per cent of people aged 12 and older and 87.6 per cent of people aged five and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 89.4 per cent of adults, 88.9 per cent of those aged 12 and older and 82.7 per cent of those aged five and older have received two doses. Eighteen per cent of adults and 16 per cent of those aged 12-plus have received three doses.

Sadly, there were six new virus-related deaths reported today, bringing that total to 2,409. Of those who died, three lived in the Fraser Health region, two in the Island Health region and one in the Northern Health region.

There remains one active acute care outbreak.

From Dec. 14 to 20, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 28.3 per cent of cases.
From Dec. 7 to 20, they accounted for 70.5% of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Dec. 14 to 20)—Total 5,944

• Not vaccinated: 1,602 (27.0 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 78 (1.3 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 4,264 (71.7 per cent)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Dec. 7 to 20)—Total 183

• Not vaccinated: 122 (66.7 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: seven (3.8 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 54 (29.5 per cent)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 14 to 20)

• Not vaccinated: 226

• Partially vaccinated: 38.3

• Fully vaccinated: 93.7

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 7 to 20)

• Not vaccinated: 28.1

• Partially vaccinated: six

• Fully vaccinated: 1.2

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.