B.C. has surpassed 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
Between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon (Dec. 23), 2,046 people tested positive for the respiratory illness. Sadly, an additional person has died related to the virus in the Vancouver Island Health authority.
This marks the third day in a row of record-breaking daily case counts, with many of those testing positive having their first two doses of vaccines.
Between Dec. 15 and 21 there were a total of 6,879 test-positive cases, of which 75.2 per cent were fully vaccinated, 1.3 per cent partially vaccinated (one of two doses) and 23.5 per cent not vaccinated.
However, in the past two weeks, unvaccinated British Columbians who did contract the virus accounted for a majority of those getting symptoms severe enough to land in hospital. Of the 175 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 from Dec. 8 to 21, 66.3 per cent were not vaccinated, 2.3 per cent were partially vaccinated, and 31.4 per cent were fully vaccinated.
The variant of concern remains Omicron, which is notably more contagious and easily transmissible when compared to the Delta variant.
Since Nov. 30, there have been 975 detected cases of Omicron: 221 in Fraser Health, 495 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 235 on Vancouver Island, 19 in Interior Health and four in Northern Health.
In total, since January 2020, B.C. has recorded 233,217 cases – of which 8,739 are considered active – and 2,410 deaths.
Of British Columbians five years and older, 87.7 per cent have received their first dose of vaccine and 82.7 per cent have gotten their second dose. Eighteen per cent of eligible British Columbians have received their booster vaccine.
