BC announces 1,462 new coronavirus cases, 79 in IH region

The B.C. government has announced 1,462 new coronavirus cases, including 79 in the Interior Health region, in the past 72 hours.

The new cases bring the province’s total since the pandemic began to 84,569, although the vast majority have already recovered. There are now 4,854 active cases in B.C.

The cases were confirmed over the weekend as follows:

• March 5/6 — 545 cases
• March 6/7 — 532 cases
• March 7/8 — 385 cases

There were another 11 COVID-19 related deaths over the weekend, bringing B.C.’s toll to 1,391.

There are 240 people hospitalized with the virus in B.C., 66 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 333,327 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C.

There were 144 cases of mutated COVID-19 variants confirmed over the weekend. There have now been 394 cases of variants confirmed in B.C., although just 87 remain active.

Contact tracers have been unable to confirm a cause of roughly 25 per cent of variant COVID-19 cases. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said that means the variants are now spreading in the community, particularly in the Fraser Health region. There have been six variant cases confirmed in the IH region.

Dr. Henry noted that there was a COVID-19 outbreak declared over the weekend at the Cottonwoods care home in Kelowna, which has already been fully vaccinated. She said some cases have been confirmed in residents who received both doses of the vaccine.

“This serves to remind us, that while we are very confident that vaccine is very effective and prevents particularly severe illness and death — it doesn’t necessarily mean that all transmission will be stopped. We need to be mindful right now that we still have high levels of transmission in our communities, how important it is to continue those precautions.”

Photo: Castanet Staff