B.C. Premier John Horgan announces travel restrictions between the province’s regional health authorities at the legislature, April 19, 2021. (B.C. government photo)

B.C. sees 862 more COVID-19 cases Wednesday, seven deaths

Recreational travel restrictions set to begin Friday

B.C.’s COVID-19 case rate stayed steady Wednesday, with 862 new cases and a continued rise in hospitalization for coronavirus conditions.

Hospitalizations continued to rise, with a record of 483 people in hospital, up from 456 Tuesday, and 164 people in intensive care, up from 148 on Tuesday. B.C. recorded seven additional deaths Wednesday, for a total of 1,546 since the pandemic began.

B.C. health authorities reported 1,027 new cases on Saturday, 933 Sunday, 1,000 on Monday and 849 on Tuesday, a slight decrease in the seven-day average after reaching record highs last week.

Public health officials are moving to restrict travel between most of B.C.’s five regional health authorities and target communities with high infection rates for full-community vaccination. Police road checks at major highways and ferries between the health regions are to be targeted starting Friday, with Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal treated as a single region.

“Since we last reported, we have had 200 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 557 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 25 in the Island Health region, 54 in the Interior Health region, 26 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a statement April 21.

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