COVID case count nearly doubles in BC over last 24 hours, vaccine supplies continue to dwindle

The Thursday update from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix delivered a case count number requiring a double take, with over 600 new cases recorded today, almost double the level of recent daily accounts from the last few days.

The new totals and themes of vaccine supplies made for some of the themes of a variety of conversation from the Government today.

“Today, we are reporting 617 new cases, including four epi-linked cases, for a total of 75,327 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 4,348 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 224 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 60 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

Currently, 7,440 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and a further 69,602 people who tested positive have recovered. 

There have been four new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,321 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost loved ones to COVID-19."

Across the province, the daily count from the individual Healthy Authorities looked as follows: 

146 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 342 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 19 in the Island Health region, 17 in the Interior Health region, 

There were 92 reported cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region, that brings the Northern Health totals to 4,227 since the coronavirus arrived in January 2020.  

One new case  was recorded in BC of a person who resides outside of Canada. 

On the theme of the provincial vaccination program, the two health officials noted that to date, 180,691 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 29,952 of which are second doses.

Earlier in the day Premier John Horgan while announcing new building programs for the province, spoke to the issue of the level of supplies in the province; noting that he planned to address the topic with the Prime Minister. 

The comments come towards the end of Thursday's media session

You can review the full COVID statement for Thursday here.  

BC CDC Data for British Columbia for February 18 2021

BC CDC Data for Northern Health Region for February 18 2021

The BC Centre for Disease control has some valuable Coronavirus notes related to COVID-19 you can explore that information here.

You can learn more about the outbreak from both the Province and the Federal government from the links below:

Federal Government site

British Columbia Government site

The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.

More from  Northern Health can be reviewed here 

You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.   

Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, those past advisories  can be reviewed here.

For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee

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