B.C. public health teams reported 2,554 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, with five new outbreaks in senior care facilities as the fast-spreading Omicron variant continued to outpace testing capacity.
There are a record-breaking 534 people in hospital with active COVID-19 infections as of Jan. 13, up from 500 in the past 24 hours, and 102 of those patients in intensive care, the same total as Wednesday.
There were seven more deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, four in Fraser Health, two on Vancouver Island and one in the Northern Health region.
There have been five new health-care facility outbreaks at Lakeview Lodge, Hamlets in Vernon, Brocklehurst Gemstone (Interior Health), Dufferin Place and Beacon Hill Villa (Island Health). The outbreak at Aberdeen Hospital (Island Health) has been declared over, for a total of 53 facilities with ongoing outbreaks, including areas of Surrey Memorial, Eagle Ridge, Royal Columbian, Abbotsford Regional, Peace Arch and Burnaby hospitals.
From Jan. 5-11, with nearly 90 per cent of adults having two doses of vaccine, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 21.0 per cent of cases. From Dec. 29 to Jan. 11, they accounted for 34.5 per cent of hospitalizations.
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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New and active cases by health region for Jan. 13:
• 885 new cases in Fraser Health, 16,972 active
• 485 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 9,762 active
• 462 new cases in Interior Health, 4,882 active
• 304 new cases in Northern Health, 1,231 active
• 412 new cases in Island Health, 3,193 active
@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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