Wednesday COVID statement sees slight dip in total cases, increased pace to vaccination program

British Columbia saw a small measure of success in bringing  the current plateau level a little bit lower, with a case report day with less than 500 new cases to report on, along with just a slight increase in hospitalizations and deaths to share word on for the day.

“Today, we are reporting 498 new cases, for a total of 89,427 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 4,851 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 9,472 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 83,083 people who tested positive have recovered. “Of the active cases, 281 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 83 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

There have been four new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,411 deaths in British Columbia."

Across the province, the Regional Health Authority's released the following data: 128 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 291 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 12 in the Island Health region, 31 in the Interior Health region.

There were 36 new cases recorded in the Northern Health region, that brings our total number of cases to 5,307 cases of COVID-19 since January of 2020.

Officials reported no new cases of people living BC who reside outside of Canada reported as having COVID today.   

When it comes to the vaccination program health officials noted that to date, 444,140 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,093 of which are second doses. 

The Vaccine appointment bookings remain open for people over age 82, adding one year each day this week for people 80 and older by the end of the week, along with Indigenous peoples over 65. 

For the Prince Rupert community vaccination program any adult eighteen years of age and over can now book their appointment, the last day to book an appointment from Prince Rupert or Port Edward is Sunday, March 21.

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

BC CDC Data for BC For March 17 2021

BC CDC Data for Northern Health Region For March 17 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