British Columbia’s COVID-19 situation continued to deteriorate Thursday, as the province reported 689 new cases and two additional deaths.
It lifted the seven-day moving average for new cases to 556.
Hospitalizations, a key metric for measuring the pandemic, climbed to 121 — the highest they have been in nearly two months. Of those patients, 56 were in critical or intensive care, the most since June 8.
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Active cases also climbed again, reaching 5,982.
Of the new cases, 219 were in the Fraser Health region, 123 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 278 were in the Interior Health region, 27 were in the Northern Health region and 42 were in the Island Health region.
It was not immediately clear how many of the new cases or hospitalizations were fully vaccinated people. The most recent information the government has released about cases by vaccination status was on Aug. 10, for a period ending Aug. 5.
More than 3.84 million British Columbians — 82.9 per cent of those eligible and 74.6 per cent of B.C.’s population — have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Of them, more than 3.43 million people — 74 per cent of those eligible and 66.6 per cent of B.C.’s population — have been fully imunized.
On Wednesday the BC COVID-19 modelling group, and independent group of scientists and data experts, warned that urgent action was needed to curb virus transmission.
It warned that the current trendline would see B.C. eclipse records set at the peak of the third wave both for new cases and hospitalizations by September.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 158,256 cases, while 1,784 people have died.
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