The death toll from COVID-19 in BC exceeds 2,000 as the province reports 743 new cases | The Canadian News

British Columbia’s COVID-19-related death toll rose to more than 2,000 on Friday, as the province reported 743 new cases and five additional deaths.

The update raised BC’s seven-day average for new cases to 671 and left the province with 5,969 active cases.

Of the new cases, 265 were in the Fraser Health region, 143 in the Interior Health region, 186 in the Northern Health region, and 70 in the Island Health region.

For the second day in a row, the Vancouver Coastal Health region, the province’s second-most populous health authority, had the lowest count of new cases, with just 69 new infections.

The number of patients in the hospital dropped from 13 to 360, while the number of people in intensive or critical care increased from five to 137.

The hospitalization figures do not include patients who were no longer infectious but remained in the hospital for other treatment, a figure that officials have not provided since Sept. 21.

More than 4.1 million British Columbia residents, representing 88.6 percent of those eligible and 79.7 percent of the entire British Columbia population, have received at least one dose of the COVID-vaccine. 19.

Of these, more than 3.81 million people, 82.2% of those eligible and 74% of the British Columbia population, have received two doses.

During the past week, people who were not fully vaccinated accounted for 69.4 percent of cases, while in the past two weeks they accounted for 76.7 percent of hospitalizations.

Earlier Friday, health officials confirmed that BC would extend its mandate for closed public places masks to children ages five and up.

Since the start of the pandemic, BC has reported 192,491 cases, while 2,001 people have died.

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