B.C. reports 2,174 new cases of COVID-19 over three days, along with 15 deaths

B.C. health officials on Monday reported 2,174 new cases of COVID-19 over the past three days, along with 15 deaths.

There were 835 cases from Friday to Saturday while 671 cases were reported from Saturday to Sunday, and 668 from Sunday to Monday.

2:20 Drop in COVID-19 hospitalizations in B.C.

Of the new cases, 438 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,509 were in the Fraser Health region, 61 were in Island Health, 106 were in Interior Health, and 60 were in Northern Health.

There have been 131,656 total cases in the province, of which 7,327 are active.

The number of people in hospital with the disease dropped to 474, a decrease of 37 from Friday. Of those, 176 are in intensive care, an increase of two.

More than 11,700 people are in self-isolation due to possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.

The 15 deaths bring the province’s COVID-19 death toll to 1,596.

Fraser Health officials said Monday that a COVID-19 outbreak at Abbotsford Regional Hospital is over.

3:49 NACI recommends Johnson & Johnson vaccine for Canadians 30+, preview of B.C. COVID-19 presser

The province said at least 1,785,599 million people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier Monday, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be limited to people over the age of 30 who don’t want to wait for Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.

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The advice is almost identical to that issued by the expert panel for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine last month and comes as both are suspected of causing a new and exceedingly rare blood-clotting syndrome.

B.C. officials have said the first shipment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine should arrive in the province as early as this week.

— With files from Simon Little and The Canadian Press