B.C. reported 1,462 new cases of COVID-19 over three days along with 11 deaths.
There were 545 cases from Friday to Saturday while 532 cases were reported from Saturday to Sunday, and 385 from Sunday to Monday.
Of the new cases, 407 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 802 were in the Fraser Health region, 72 in Island Health, 79 in Interior Health, and 102 in Northern Health.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said 144 of the new cases involved variants of concern, bringing the total number of variant cases to 394. The majority of those cases are linked to the B.1.1.7. variant first identified in the U.K.
The number of active cases linked to COVID-19 variants jumped to 87. On Friday, the province reported just 12 active cases involving variants.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 dropped by 15 to 240. Sixty-six of those patients are in critical or intensive care, a number that remains unchanged from Friday.
There are 4,854 active COVID-19 cases in the province while 8,723 people are in self-isolation due to possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.
The 11 deaths bring the province’s COVID-19 death toll to 1,391.
The update comes after the opening of British Columbia’s call centre to book COVID-19 vaccination appointments.
Dix said the appointment booking line received 1.7 million calls as of 9:40 a.m. Monday despite the fact that only about 82,000 people — those born in 1931 or earlier and Indigenous people born in 1946 and earlier — are eligible to receive an appointment at this time.
Many of those same people have already received a vaccination in long-term care.
“This is not the time to call in if you are not calling for someone over the age of 90 or an Indigenous person 65-plus,” Dix said.
“This is not the time to call in.”
On Friday, B.C. reported 634 new cases of COVID-19 along with four deaths.
— With files from Simon Little and Richard Zussman