B.C. public health teams recorded 3,223 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, from almost 15,000 test results completed in the past 24 hours.
There are 324 people in B.C. hospitals with active COVID-19 infections as of Jan. 6, up by five in the past 24 hours, and 90 of those patients in critical care, up by seven. There were three additional deaths attributed to COVID-19, for a total of 2,430 since the pandemic began in early 2020.
There are now more than 31,000 official active infection cases in B.C. With daily molecular testing at full capacity, the number of actual infections in the community since the advent of the Omicron variant may be several times higher. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says people who have been exposed or have mild respiratory symptoms should assume they are infected and self-isolate for five days.
With new confirmed cases running in the thousands per day since before Christmas, the focus for testing is on people with symptoms and the measure being watched most closely is the hospitalization rate, which has been slowly creeping up in the past two weeks as infections soared.
B.C. health authorities continue to operate scheduled appointment COVID-19 vaccination clinics around the province for residents age five and older. Registration and booking appointments in B.C. can be done online here, or by calling 1-833-838-2323 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week.
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