B.C. reports over 100 new COVID-19 cases for first time in five weeks

Three weeks after B.C. moved to Step 3 of its COVID-19 reopening plan, rising new cases have hit a concerning milestone.

In a written statement, health officials reported 112 cases on Friday and four deaths.

It’s the first time new cases have topped 100 since June 18, and pushed the seven-day average for new cases to 73, the highest they have been in a month.

4:45 B.C. reports 112 new COVID-19 cases, four new deaths

It also represents a more than doubling of new cases over a single week; last Friday, B.C. reported 45 new cases.

More than half of the new cases, 59, were in the Interior Health region.

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Thirty were in the Fraser Health region, 15 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, three were in the Northern Health region and five were in the Island Health region.

The BC Centre for Disease Control is scheduled to release an update on COVID-19 variant tracking later on Friday. Last week, it reported the highly-contagious Delta variant made up 33 per cent of B.C. cases, up from eight per cent the week before.

There were 603 active cases, nearly 180 fewer than reported on Thursday.

Forty-six COVID-19 patients were in hospital, 17 of them in critical or intensive care.

More than 3.72 million British Columbians — 80.3 per cent of those eligible and 72.3 per cent of all of B.C.’s population — has had at least one dose of vaccine.

More than 2.68 million people — 58.1 per cent of those eligible and 52.2 per cent of the population — have been fully vaccinated.

Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 148,842 cases and 1,767 deaths.