British Columbia recorded 634 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the highest, single-day increase reported since early January.
In a written statement, health officials said four more people had died of COVID-19, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,380.
Of the new cases, 149 new cases were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 365 were in the Fraser Health region, 26 were in the Island Health region, 33 were in the Interior Health region and 60 were in the Northern Health region.
Two other key metrics also trended worryingly in the wrong direction.
There were 4,901 active cases, the highest number since Jan. 12. An additional 8,861 people were also isolating due to possible exposure.
And there were 255 people in hospital, the most since Feb. 4. Sixty-six of those patients were in critical or intensive care.
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The province identified four new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern, all of them the B.1.1.7 variant, for a total of 250 total cases.
Twelve cases remained active.
About 4.4 per cent of B.C.’s population, 224,343 people, have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 86,865 people have had two doses.
Starting on Monday the province will open vaccine appointment bookings for people over 90 and Indigenous people over 65.
Anyone not in this grouping is urged not to call the vaccine registration hotline. The province says it will provide regular updates to the public on when the next booking category opens.
About 92 per cent of B.C.’s total 83,107 cases had recovered.
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