B.C. recorded 438 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, along with two additional deaths.
Of the new cases, 137 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 249 were in the Fraser Health region, 19 in Island Health, 16 in Interior Health, and 17 in Northern Health.
The province reported an additional 22 cases involving variants of concerns, bringing the total number of cases in B.C. to 182. Eight cases involving variants are active.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced a correction to recent COVID-19 data, adding an extra 254 cases to totals over the last week. There have been 81,367 cases of COVID-19 in B.C.
The deaths bring the province’s COVID-19 death toll to 1,365.
The number of people in hospital with the disease rose by seven to 243. Of those patients, 63 are in intensive care.
There are 4,679 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. while 8,445 people are self-isolating due to possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.
The province has administered 283,182 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 86,537 of which were second doses.
On Monday, health officials unveiled details around COVID-19 vaccinations for people over the age of 80.
The province also said it expects that all adults in the province will have the option to receive their first dose before the end of July.
Health officials said the province plans to extend the interval between vaccine doses to four months, saying the decision was based on local and international evidence that shows the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines provides “miraculous” 90 per cent protection from the virus.
Chief science adviser Mona Nemer said in a media interview that B.C.’s plan amounts to a “population-level experiment” and that the data provided so far by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech is based on an interval of three to four weeks between doses.
— With files from Richard Zussman and The Canadian Press