B.C. records 2,046 new COVID cases, surpassing projected ‘worst case scenario’

B.C.’s COVID case numbers continued to soar ahead of Christmas Day, with another 2,046 cases recorded Thursday.

The update broke B.C.’s previous one-day record, set Wednesday, of 1,528 cases and Tuesday’s record of 1,308 cases.

Thursday’s cases include 741 new cases in Fraser Health, 880 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 123 new cases in Interior Health, 53 new cases in Northern Health, 248 new cases in Island Health and one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada.

There are now 8,739 active cases, largely driven by the highly-contagious Omicron variant, of which there are now 975 cases recorded.

This includes 221 in Fraser Health, 496 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 19 in Interior Health, four in Northern Health and 235 in Island Health.

This high number of cases seen Thursday was cited as being the “worst-case scenario” when the province unveiled its modelling numbers on Dec. 14.

According to the modelling data, B.C.’s worst-case scenario involving Omicron would be 2,000 new cases per day by Dec. 29. The best-case scenario would be around 1,000 new cases per day by the middle of January, the province said.

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One more person has died, bringing the total to 2,410 since the start of the pandemic.

An additional eight people were in hospital from Wednesday, for a total of 195, and four more people were in the ICU, now for a total of 75.

There have now been 233,217 total cases in B.C. since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, 87.7 per cent (4,372,428) of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.7 per cent (4,124,437) have received their second dose.

In addition, 91.8 per cent (4,255,333) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 89 per cent (4,124,353) received their second dose and 17 per cent (785,505) have received a third dose.

Also, 92.2 per cent (3,986,940) of all eligible adults in B.C. have received their first dose, 89.5 per cent (3,869,327) received their second dose and 18 per cent (784,714) have received a third dose.