British Columbia reported another 21 COVID-19-related deaths on Wednesday, as the number of hospitalizations continued to hover just below 1,000.
Health officials said 949 people in the provinces hospitals had tested positive for the coronavirus, including 136 people in critical or intensive care.
The province also reported another 2,086 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 and 30,058 confirmed active cases, however the numbers are no longer considered an accurate measure of the virus’ spread due to limitations on testing.
As of Wednesday, 86.8 per cent of B.C.’s population (89.7 per cent of those eligible) had received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 80.9 per cent of B.C.’s population (83.6 per cent of those eligible) had had two doses and 37.9 per cent of the population (42.2 per cent of those eligible) had received three doses.
People with two or more doses made up 71.8 per cent of new cases over the past week and 70.1 per cent of hospitalizations.
On a per-capita basis, however, unvaccinated people remain at higher risk of serious outcomes, accounting for 85.2 admissions per 100,000 population, compared to admissions for fully vaccinated people.
There were five new health-care facilities, four at long-term care homes and one at Victoria General Hospital.
On Tuesday, B.C. health officials confirmed the province had identified 66 cases of a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant of concern dubbed BA.2.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said it is believed to be more transmissible, but that much remains unknown about the sub variant.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported a total of 316,873 cases, while 2,575 people have died.