DR. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, on Tuesday reported 697 new COVID-19 cases, including 16 epi-linked cases, for a total of 132,353 cases in British Columbia.

There has been one new COVID-19-related death, for a total of 1,597 deaths in the province.

There are 7,161 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 10,961 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 123,383 people who tested positive have recovered.

Of the active cases, 486 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 173 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been 142 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 456 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 19 in the Island Health region, 65 in the Interior Health region, 14 in the Northern Health region and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.

The outbreaks at Cottonwoods Care Centre and Mount St. Mary Hospital are now over.

Henry and Dix said: “1,910,162 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 92,244 of which are second doses.

“The best way to reserve your vaccine dose is to register on the Get Vaccinated website or by calling 1 833 838-2323. Everyone 18 and older should ensure they do this right away.

“With the additional vaccine supply now available, we are accelerating our vaccine delivery to people throughout the province to get vaccines into arms as soon as possible.

“Today, we are adding pregnant persons 16 and older to those who are eligible to book their vaccine. If you are pregnant, this is your time. Please register, then call 1 833 383-2323 and let them know you are pregnant to book your appointment (online booking for pregnant persons is not available at this time).

“With each person who is vaccinated, we are all safer. Let’s continue to do our part – to get vaccinated when it is our turn, use our layers of protection and follow all of the public health measures we have in place.”