B.C. reports 622 new COVID-19 cases and 8 deaths, as vaccinations ramp up

Despite an accelerated vaccination timeline, COVID-19 continues to spread through British Columbia.

In a written statement Thursday, health officials announced another 622 cases, along with eight new deaths.

Of the new cases, 184 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 317 were in the Fraser Health region, 35 were in the Island Health region, 30 were in the Interior Health region and 54 in the Northern Health region.

It left the province with 4,941 active cases, while another 9,620 people were isolating due to exposure.

Officials reported 136 new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern, bringing the provincial total to 1,132 — 143 of which remain active.

So far, B.C. has detected 1,040 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 41 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 51 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.

There were 286 people in hospital, 85 of them in critical or intensive care.

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The province administered an additional 21,000 doses of vaccine since its last report Wednesday, for a total of 465,584 doses disbursed so far.

That includes 378,464 first doses, amounting to nearly 7.5 per cent of B.C.’s population.

About 92 per cent of B.C.’s 90,048 cases have recovered, while 1,419 people have died.

Earlier Thursday, the province announced it would use its next shipments of the AstraZeneca/SII vaccine to immunize front-line workers, including teachers, child-care workers and first responders outside of its current age-based system.

Officials also updated their vaccination timeline for the general public, and said if all goes according to plan up to 25 per cent of B.C.’s population could have their first shot by this time next month, with everyone aged 18 and older immunized by the end of June.