64.6% of all adults have received their first dose, or 59.8% of those 12 and older

PROVINCIAL Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and HealthMinister Adrian Dix on Tuesday reported 289 new cases, including four epi-linked cases, for a total of 142,636 cases in British Columbia.

There has been one new COVID-19-related death, for a total of 1,680 deaths in the province.

There are 3,782 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. A further 137,062 people who tested positive have recovered.

Of the active cases, 301 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 93 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been 70 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 176 new cases in the Fraser Health region, three in the Island Health region, 35 in the Interior Health region, four in the Northern Health region and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.

Henry and Dix said: “2,927,487 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to adults 18 and over in B.C., 148,580 of which are second doses.

“This means 64.6% of all adults have received their first dose, or 59.8% of those 12 and older.

“Today, Premier John Horgan provided the details of BC’s four-step Restart Plan, charting our path forward through the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a careful and measured approach that will allow us to slowly ease restrictions.

“Our path forward is a collective effort and we all have a role to play – slowing community transmission by each of us getting our first and second doses of vaccine and continuing with our safety layers, in combination with public health teams actively contact tracing and containing new clusters and outbreaks.

“As cases continue to decline and immunizations steadily rise, we are moving forward with purpose, monitoring our progress to ensure we remain on track.

“What will remain the same – no matter what – is the importance of washing our hands, staying home and staying away from others when we are ill, and getting tested should we develop any symptoms of COVID-19.

“We are not yet through this storm, but the end is in sight. We are getting closer every day, and now there is a clear roadmap for how we’ll get there.”