Case count tops over 560 on the day, more on the B.C. vaccination program makes for much of the Thursday COVID update

The tallies of COVID reports don't seem to be showing much decline of late, though concerns over any stagnation are also sharing time with optimism over an improving situation on the vaccine delivery side of things in British Columbia.

Those two elements were among some of the key themes for Thursday, COVID-19 report from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

“Today, we are reporting 564 new cases, including 12 epi-linked cases, for a total of 82,473 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 4,743 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,659 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 76,289 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Of the active cases, 248 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 64 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

There have been four new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,376 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost loved ones to COVID-19." 

Across the province, the case count for Thursday observed of the reports from the regional Health Authority's, among the results:  168 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 279 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 35 in the Island Health region, 36 in the Interior Health region, 

There were 46 cases recorded in the Northern Health region, the Northern region total number of cases now stands at 4,739 since January of 2020.

There were no new case reports of people with COVID in British Columbia who reside outside of Canada. 

There have been 46 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 246 cases. Of the total cases, 16 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 218 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and 28 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant. 

With health officials seeing significant improvement in the delivery of vaccines to the province, today's update put a significant amount of focus on the range of vaccines and how they will be administered.

 “Here in B.C., we are in a new place in the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now getting a regular supply of COVID-19 vaccines that is increasing our protection, but we are also still seeing an uptick in new cases. 

We can’t let the successes of the vaccines be diminished with a surge in new cases in those who will be immunized in the months ahead. This is why our layers of protection need to continue to be top of mind for all of us. 

The first deliveries of the AstraZeneca-Serum Institute of India COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in our province in the coming days. This vaccine will be made available to first responders and essential workers. The delivery will run parallel with our age-based, community-wide immunization program."

More on the vaccine plans and further background on Thursdays report can be reviewed here. 

BC CDC Data for British Columbia for March 4 2021

BC CDC Data for Northern BC for March 4 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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