British Columbia health officials reported 714 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 11 additional deaths.
The update brought the seven-day average for new cases in B.C. down to 738, a dip from the near five-month high of 754 recorded Wednesday.
Of the new cases, 274 were in the Fraser Health region, 73 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 205 were in the Interior Health region, 106 were in the Northern Health region and 56 were in the Island Health region.
There were 6,317 active cases across the province.
Officials reported 328 infectious COVID-19 patients in hospital, 138 of whom were in critical or intensive care.
Last week, the province acknowledged that scores of people initially admitted to hospital for COVID-19 but who were no longer infectious or were now being treated for other issues remained hospitalized, but were not included in the daily count. As of Sept. 21, there were 152 such patients.
More than 4.07 million people, accounting for 88 per cent of eligible British Columbians and 79.2 per cent of B.C.’s population, have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Of them, more than 3.76 million people, accounting for 81.1 per cent of those eligible and 73 per cent of B.C.’s population, have had two doses.
Earlier Friday, British Columbia announced it was following the lead of three Lower Mainland school districts and expanding a mask mandate for students to cover children from kindergarten to Grade 3.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 187,694 total cases of COVID-19 and 1,973 deaths.
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