COVID case count numbers remain static at 550, variants continue to increase in last 24 hours. Health Officials outline plans for large scale community vaccination in Prince Rupert

The pace of new case counts continues to remain mired in the mid five hundreds, while the variant cases of COVID-19 continue to grow with the latest total reaching just under 600 cases.

Today's release of data and background notes came by way of a statement from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

“Today, we are reporting 550 new cases, including 11 epi-linked cases for a total of 85,119 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 4,869 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,971 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. 

fA further 78,770 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Of the active cases, 249 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 68 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

There have been two new COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours, for a total of 1,393 deaths in British Columbia." 

 

Across the province, the Health Authority regions reported the following case count: 133 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 319 new cases in the Fraser Health region, seven in the Island Health region, 36 in the Interior Health region, 

There were 52 cases recorded  in the Northern Health region, making for a total of 4,953 cases since January of 2020.

 

Three new cases of COVID were recorded in  people in British Columbia who reside outside of Canada. 

On themes of the growing variant cases, there have been 182 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 576 cases. 

Of the total cases, 113 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 530 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 33 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 13 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.  

As the Provincial vaccination program moves forward to date, 343,381 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 86,938 of which are second doses. Vaccine appointment bookings are now open for people over 90 and Indigenous people over 65. We remind everyone who is outside of this age group to wait to call until your registration window begins.

Today also brought an update from Northern Health for residents of Prince Rupert and Port Edward, with the Health Authority outlining plans for a large scale community vaccination program for later this month, that in response to an ongoing rise in COVID cases on the North Coast. 

More notes on Tuesday's provincial  report can be reviewed here.

BC CDC Data for BC For March 9 2021

BC CDC Data for Northern Health for March 9 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

Ottawa Observations

Victoria Viewpoints