B.C. has reported fewer than 200 daily cases of COVID-19 for the first time since last October.
Health officials recorded 184 new cases of the disease on Tuesday, along with no new deaths. The province last reported fewer than 200 cases on Oct. 20, 2020.
Forty-eight of the cases were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 113 were in the Fraser Health region, and 19 were in Interior Health. Just one case was recorded in Island Health while Northern Health had two cases.
The seven-day average for new cases is 262, the lowest since Oct. 30.
The seven-day rolling average of B.C.’s positivity rates is 4.7 per cent.
After dipping significantly over the weekend, the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 rose by five to 254, with 80 patients in intensive care.
On Monday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the province dropped below 3,000 for the first time since Nov. 2. The number of active cases in the province dipped again Tuesday to 2,800.
The province said 70.4 per cent of all adults in B.C. and 67 per cent of those 12 and older have now received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. In total, just over 3.3 million doses of vaccine have been administered in B.C.
Those who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be able to opt for either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna product as their second dose, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization said Tuesday.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief medical officer, said pairing AstraZeneca’s viral vector technology with either of the two mRNA products is safe and effective, citing the “strength of emerging evidence and … decades of experience with vaccines.”
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is expected to announce B.C.’s plan to allow mixing and matching of different types of COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday.
— With files from Richard Zussman and The Canadian Press
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