British Columbia marked its deadliest day of COVID-19 reporting since Jan. 1, with 16 deaths and 414 new cases on Wednesday.
It marked the fifth consecutive day that new cases were below 500, and left the seven-day average for daily new cases at 437.
In a written statement, officials also confirmed that tests had confirmed that the COVID-19 B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the U.K., had not been passed on to anyone at Garabaldi High School in Maple Ridge.
“Public health teams have conducted a full investigation at Garibaldi High School. Testing has confirmed the original person did have the B.1.1.7 variant of concern,” said the statement.
“They have since recovered and there is no longer an exposure risk.”
Officials said tests of 81 students and eight staff at the school revealed no other positive cases.
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Officials previously said the person was not a student at the school, and had been in close contact with someone else who had tested positive for the variant.
Of the new cases, 108 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 182 were in the Fraser Health region, 26 were in the Island Health region, 63 were in the Interior Health region and 34 were in the Northern Health region.
Health officials said they had administered a total of 142,146 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, of which 6,417 were second doses.
The province also reported 278 COVID-19 patients in hospital, the lowest since Nov. 23. Eighty of those patients were in critical or intensive care.
A new outbreak was also reported at Burnaby Hospital.
There were 4,426 active cases in B.C., and a further 7,049 people were were isolating due to exposure.
Nearly 90 per cent of B.C.’s 68,780 total cases have recovered, while 1,234 people have died.
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