Island Health reported 24 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend. There are now 231 active cases in the region, according to the health authority’s website. Of these, 130 are in the central island, 48 are in the south and 53 are in the north.
Currently 14 people are hospitalized with the virus in Island Health, one of whom is in critical care, according to the B.C. government COVID-19 dashboard.
Across the province there are now 4,854 active cases, according to a joint statement by Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer and Adrian Dix, minister of health. The province reported 1,462 new cases over the weekend.
There are 240 people hospitalized in B.C. with the virus, 66 of whom are in intensive care. Eleven more people have died, according to the statement.
“With our immunization program ramping up and our days soon getting warmer once again, we can start to look at a modified return of some of the activities that have been on pause,” it reads. “We know that a thoughtful, careful approach is required, which means we need to think of resuming activities as slowly turning a dial, instead of flicking a switch.”
To date there have been 333,327 doses of vaccine administered — 86,925 of these have been second doses.
Seniors over 90 years old and First Nations elders over 65 can book appointments for vaccines, which will start on March 15.
“We have seen extremely high call volumes and the teams are working to respond as quickly as possible. We ask everyone who is outside of this age group to please wait to call until your registration window begins,” said the statement.
