As COVID cases continue to spike in Interior Health region and rise elsewhere, the province reduces the wait time between first and second shots

Monday's always make for an eye opening experience when it comes to a review of the weekend case counts of COVID and today is no exception with the total number of new cases listed at 1.079 over the three day period of Saturday to Monday.

The bulk of those cases now reporting from the Interior Health which saw 587 new cases reported over the weekend.

The remainder of the new cases were outlined as follows:

Fraser Health 258 new cases
Vancouver Coastal Health 142 new cases
Island Health 62 new cases
Northern Health 30 new cases, 18 of them in the last 24 hours

Over the course of the last 72 hours five new deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, four from the Interior Health region, 1 from Northern Health.

The latest death brings the Northern Health total to 159 confirmed deaths since the coronavirus was first recorded in the region.

The BC CDC Data Dashboard provides for the latest snapshot of COVID in the Northern Health region, currently there are 108 active cases in the Northern Health delivery area, 2 patients are currently hospitalized, 2 are in critical care, while 7,687 Northern BC residents have recovered from the virus.

The pace of the vaccination program has slowed somewhat during the summer months, with the province now counting 7,067,738 vaccinations administered to date.

That total adds 74,634 vaccinations to the list since Friday.

82 percent of those are first shots of the vaccine, while 72.2 percent of eligible British Columbians have been vaccinated with their second shot.

To help address community outbreaks and increased cases of the virus among people who have only one dose of the vaccine, the Province will begin offering second-dose appointments at an earlier interval, based on vaccine and appointment availability. 

Currently, invitations for the second dose go to people 49 days after their first dose. The Province is transitioning toward offering second-dose vaccinations for people as early as 28 days after their first dose. Starting this evening, Monday, Aug. 9, invitations to book second-dose appointments will be sent, based on the new 28-day minimum interval. 

This timeframe will be the same for those who received Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca for their first dose. Receiving a second dose earlier is particularly important in high-transmission communities. 

The recommendation from public health for those not living or working in high-transmission communities continues to be to wait six to eight weeks after the first dose to receive the second dose.

The full statement from the Province from today can be reviewed here.

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