DR. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, on Monday announced a total of 1,478 new COVID-19 cases, with no new epi-linked cases, since Friday for a total of 80,672 cases in British Columbia.

They said: “Today, we are reporting on three periods: February 26 to 27, we had 532 new cases, February 27 to 28, we had 508 new cases and in the last 24 hours, we had a further 438 new cases.”

There were eight new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,363 deaths in the province.

To date, 275,681 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 83,777 of which are second doses. Immunization data is available on the COVID-19 dashboard: www.bccdc.ca.

There are 4,464 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,210 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and a further 74,776 people who tested positive have recovered.

Of the active cases, 236 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 65 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

Since Friday, there have been 327 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 857 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 88 in the Island Health region, 92 in the Interior Health region, 114 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There have been 42 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in the province, for a total of 158 cases. Of the total cases, 10 cases are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 137 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and 21 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant.

There have been four new health-care facility outbreaks at Glacier View Lodge (Island Health), Chilliwack General Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital and Surrey Memorial Hospital.

The outbreaks at St. Paul’s Hospital, CareLife Fleetwood, George Derby Centre, Eden Gardens, Wexford Creek and Noric House are now over.

Henry and Dix added: “Today, we begin Phase 2 of our COVID-19 immunization program, which will immunize more than 400,000 people in B.C. between March and early April.

“Phase 2 continues to focus on high-priority, higher-risk individuals, in advance of the age-based general population immunizations that will follow.

“With the additional supply from the newly approved AstraZeneca/Serum Institute of India viral vector vaccine, combined with setting the second dose interval at 16 weeks, everyone moves up the line, meaning more people will be vaccinated more quickly.

“Every day we are one step closer to widespread community immunity and post-pandemic life. Let’s ensure we are continuing with our efforts until we get there.”