B.C. public health teams recorded another 322 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province Wednesday, continuing a trend of declining infections but high incidence of serious illness and deaths.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the trend is clear with the Delta variant of coronavirus circulating, it is more transmissible and results in more serious illness, including in younger people.
There are 318 people in hospital with active COVID-19 infections, down from 345 on Tuesday, and 109 in intensive care, down from 115 in the 24 hours up to Nov. 24. Five of the nine deaths in that period were in Northern Health, where vaccination rates are low in some areas and infection rates are much higher than the rest of B.C.
There have been no new outbreaks in the health care system, where active outbreaks have declined to 10 in recent days. There is one new outbreak declared at St. Ann’s Catholic School in Quesnel. School outbreaks are declared where a cluster of two or more infections has been confirmed and transmission was likely at the school.
From Nov. 16-22, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 58.1% of cases. From Nov. 9-22, they accounted for 69.2% of hospitalizations. That’s out of the 13% of people aged 12 and older in B.C. remain without two doses of vaccine, and a program is underway to deliver booster doses starting with people aged 70 and up.
B.C. health authorities continue to operate scheduled appointment COVID-19 vaccination clinics around the province. A list of clinic locations and hours by region can be found here. Registration and booking appointments in B.C. can be done here, or by calling 1-833-838-2323 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. seven days a week.
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New and active cases by region for Nov. 24:
• 100 new cases in Fraser Health, 1,095 active
• 50 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 472 active
• 86 new cases in Interior Health, 606 active
• 44 new cases in Northern Health, 415 active
• 42 new cases in Island Health, 421 active
@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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