PROVINCIAL Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix on Wednesday announced 542 new cases, including five epi-linked cases, of COVID-19, for a total of 81,909 cases in British Columbia.

There have been seven new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,372 deaths in the province.

To date, 289,809 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 86,616 of which are second doses. Immunization data is available on the COVID-19 dashboard at: www.bccdc.ca.

There are 4,654 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,617 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 75,819 people who tested positive have recovered.

Of the active cases, 246 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 64 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been 131 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 292 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 31 in the Island Health region, 43 in the Interior Health region, 44 in the Northern Health region and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.

There have been 18 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 200 cases. Of the total cases, 11 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 176 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and 24 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant.

There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks.

Henry and Dix said: “Our goal is to protect as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, through the available COVID-19 vaccines. With a single primer dose, these vaccines are helping to stop outbreaks and reduce serious illness and death.

“Setting the second booster dose at 16 weeks allows us to expand the number of people who will have access to these safe and effective vaccines, and may provide more durable and longer lasting protection.

“We are pleased to see that today, the National Advisory Council on Immunization, as well as Canada’s Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health, have endorsed this approach.

“More people vaccinated – whether in Nanaimo, Nelson or North Vancouver – makes all of us safer. Until we have that next level of community protection, so does staying the course with our safety measures, staying small and local. Let’s keep going and get to those post-pandemic days.”