COVID-19 cases continued to mount in British Columbia Thursday, as health officials announced 801 new cases and six additional deaths.
It lifted the seven-day average for new cases to 708, the highest it has been since early May.
Of the new cases, 267 were in the Fraser Health region, 128 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 237 were in the Interior Health region, 103 were in the Northern Health region and 66 were in the Island Health region.
The surging numbers in the Northern Health region prompted the province to announce tougher COVID-19 restrictions, which will take effect on Sept. 7.
“The vast majority of patients in ICU in Northern Health today are unvaccinated,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said, adding that vaccination rates in the region have lagged.
According to the latest data from the B.C. Centre For Disease Control, just 49 per cent of people in the Fort Nelson local health area were fully vaccinated, and just 47 per cent of people were fully vaccinated in the Peace River South local health area.
There were 5,931 active cases across the province.
The number of people hospitalized, 199, was unchanged overnight, but the number of people in critical or intensive care climbed by four to 116.
More than 3.9 million British Columbians, representing 84.6 per cent of those eligible and 76.1 per cent of B.C.’s population, has had one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Of them, more than 3.56 million people, representing 76.9 per cent of those eligible and 69.2 per cent of B.C.’s population, has been fully immunized.
The provinces says new cases and hospitalizations continue to be mainly among the unvaccinated.
While more than two-thirds of British Columbians are fully immunized, they represented just one in five cases in the last week and just 16 per cent of hospitalizations over the last two weeks.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 167,654 cases, while 1,824 people have died.