PROVINCIAL Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix on Wednesday announced 762 new cases of COVID-19, including three epi-linked cases, and 10 new COVID-19-related deaths in British Columbia.

The total number of COVID-19 cases is now 24,422 and the total number of COVID-19-related deaths now stands at 320 in the province.

There are 6,861 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Currently, 209 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 58 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There are 9,871 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 16,914 people who tested positive have recovered.

There have been 210 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 481 in the Fraser Health region, 20 in the Island Health region, 38 in the Interior Health region, 13 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There have been three new health-care facility outbreaks at Agecare Harmony Court Estates, Menno Home and at Peace Villa. The outbreak at Normanna has been declared over.

There have been no new community outbreaks and the outbreak at La Casa Resort has been declared over.

Henry and Dix added: “We have seen a rising number of new cases of COVID-19 across the province and we need to slow this down. We need to put the brakes on the virus and doing this requires a sustained effort by all of us.

“This second surge is putting a strain on our health-care system, our workplaces and us all. We need to ease this pressure so we can continue to manage the virus in our province and also continue to do the many activities that are important to us.

“While your personal efforts may seem small or having little impact, the collective benefit to every community in every region is significant. Our safety layers are there to help protect us and they work best when we are all using them, all of the time.

“Now is the time to stay small, stay local and do your part – at home, work, school and in your community.”