Vaccine wristbands handed out for COVID-19 hot spot in Surrey, B.C.

VICTORIA — Four extra vaccination clinics have been set up in Surrey, B.C., this week to ramp up immunization in a COVID-19 hot spot with a high number of essential workers.

The Health Ministry says the first 1,000 people to show up will be given wristbands for same-day appointments at the clinics, and residents must present identification proving they live in Surrey.
Everyone in B.C. aged 18 and up can now book an appointment to get immunized as part of the province’s age-based approach.

3:11 Second dose of COVID-19 vaccine may be available sooner than expected in B.C.

COVID-19 numbers in B.C. continue to go down, with 1,360 new cases announced since Friday. That count includes 443 from Friday to Saturday, 493 from Saturday to Sunday and 424 in the last 24 hours. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 139,664 cases.

Of the new cases, 291 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 861 in the Fraser Health region, 36 in the Island Health region, 126 in the Interior Health region and 47 in the Northern Health region.

There are 5,021 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 350 of those people are hospitalized, 132 of whom are in intensive care.

3:25 B.C. reports 1,360 new COVID-19 cases over three days, along with 14 additional deaths

To date, 2,528,398 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 130,023 of those are second doses.