B.C. smashes Tuesday’s record with 1,528 new COVID-19 cases

It’s a record B.C. didn’t want to break.

On Tuesday, the province reported its highest single-day count of COVID-19 cases, but on Wednesday, surpassed those new infection numbers by more than 200.

Public health officials are now reporting 1,528 cases on Dec. 22, breaking Tuesday’s record of 1,308 cases. It was originally reported there were 1,474 cases but the BC CDC dashboard was later updated to reflect the additional cases.

There have also been six deaths, bringing that total to 2,409 cases since the start of the pandemic.

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There are currently 187 people in hospitals, 71 of whom are in intensive care.

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That’s down the 192 hospitalized patients reported on Tuesday, with 72 in intensive care.

There are now 7,307 active cases of the virus in B.C.

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As of Wednesday, 87.6 per cent (4,366,010) of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.7 per cent (4,122,434) have received their second dose.

In addition, 91.8 per cent (4,253,714) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 88.9 per cent (4,122,360) have received their second dose and 16 per cent (764,498) have received a third dose.

Also, 92.1 per cent (3,985,464) of all eligible adults in B.C. have received their first dose, 89.4 per cent (3,867,516) have received their second dose and 18 per cent (763,715) have received a third dose.

The B.C. government did not have an update on the number of Omicron cases now recorded in the province, but a doctor is warning residents it is likely everyone will become exposed to the highly-mutated Omicron variant at some point.

“I think it is reasonable to expect that many of us will get exposed to and infected by Omicron and we have some data from the U.K. showing the reinfection rate is about five times higher than that of Delta,” Global BC medical contributor Dr. Birinder Narang said Wednesday.

He said if someone is displaying symptoms, such as a sore throat or a runny nose or fever — even if it is mild — that person should go and get a COVID-19 test.

Note: The numbers of total and new cases are provisional due to a delayed data refresh and will be verified once confirmed, the province said in the initial release.