New daily cases of COVID-19 dropped moderately Thursday, with 395 new cases identified in the past 24 hours, including 24 in the Interior.

The new cases bring the total positive tests in British Columbia to 78,673, but there remains 4,489 active cases provincewide. Active cases dropped by 179 since Wednesday.

Of these, 228 people are currently hospitalized with the virus – down by nine since Wednesday – and 62 of these patients are being treated in ICU.

Another 7,931 people are self-isolating after coming into contact with a COVID-positive person.

Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 10 new COVID-19 deaths in B.C. Thursday, bringing the total deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,348. Health Minister Adrian Dix said five of the new deaths came from the Interior, but these numbers were announced by the health authority Wednesday.

A new long-term care home outbreak was declared at Maple Ridge's Revera Sunwood retirement residence, while the outbreak at Burnaby Hospital was declared over.

Since Wednesday, 8,958 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to British Columbians, for a total of 239,833 doses – 68,157 of which were second doses.

Since Monday, 16 new variant cases of the virus were identified in B.C. for a total of 116 variant cases so far. These include 95 of the U.K.-linked variant and 21 of the South Africa-linked variant, but there remains only nine active cases of these variants. To date, two cases of a Nigeria-linked variant have been identified in B.C., but it's still unclear if this variant is more transmissible compared to the regular COVID-19 virus.

Dr. Henry said they are paying close attention to these variants, and 100 per cent of positive tests in B.C. will be screened for variants by the end of next week.

During Thursday's press conference, Health Minister Dix noted the Interior's work in bringing down transmission of the virus in recent weeks and the decreasing of the reproductive number – the number of people infected from each case – in the region. But Dr. Henry said they're seeing these numbers creep up in the Lower Mainland.

She said while she's not comfortable easing any restrictions at this time, she's hoping to slowly begin easing some restrictions like lifting bans on religious services and youth sports in March.