B.C. is reporting 742 cases, including two epi-linked ones, of COVID-19 over the August long weekend.
Broken down by day, that is 160 new cases from Friday to Saturday, 196 new cases from Saturday to Sunday, 185 new cases from Sunday to Monday and 201 new cases from Sunday to Monday.
By region, that is 165 new cases in Fraser Health, 115 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 395 new cases in Interior Health, 24 new cases in Northern Health, 42 new cases in Island Health and one new case in a person who normally resides outside of Canada.
There are currently 1,544 active cases in B.C., with more than half in Interior Health. The Central Okanagan region has returned to the mask mandate that B.C. lifted on July 1 due to the spike in cases.
There are currently 53 people in hospital with COVID, of whom 19 are in intensive care or ICU. One person in Vancouver Coastal Health has died over the B.C. Day long weekend for a total of 1,772 deaths. Overall, there have been 150,631 total cases of the virus since the pandemic began..
A total of 81.4 per cent of people have received their first dose of a COVID vaccine, while 67.3 per cent have received their second dose.
Speaking at an unrelated press conference earlier on Tuesday (Aug. 3), provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said that the province is not currently looking at requiring vaccinations. However, Henry said that it is “perfectly valid” for private businesses to require proof of immunization.
As far as back-to-school plans go, she said the province is continuing to work on making the next year “as normal as possible for children” and focusing on vaccinations for older students and teachers. Currently, there are no COVID vaccines approved in Canada for children under 12 years of age.
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