British Columbia announced another four COVID-19-related deaths on Thursday, as the number of cases in hospital fell below 400 for the first time in two months.
Health officials said there were 388 positive cases in hospital, including 52 people in critical or intensive care.
The update came as the province unveiled plans to drop mask mandates for indoor public places on Friday and B.C.’s vaccine passport by April 8.
Officials also confirmed 336 new cases of COVID-19, however, daily case counts are no longer considered an accurate measure of the virus’ spread due to limitations on testing.
There were 14 ongoing outbreaks in health-care facilities, 12 of which were in long-term care facilities.
As of Thursday, 87.8 per cent of all British Columbians (90.7 per cent of those eligible) had received one dose of vaccine, 83.8 per cent of B.C.’s population (86.6 per cent of those eligible) had received two doses, and 48.9 per cent of B.C.’s population (58.3 per cent of those eligible) had received three doses.
People with two or more doses accounted for 82 per cent of new cases over the past week and 71 per cent of cases in hospital over the past two weeks.
Data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control continues to show the unvaccinated are at significantly higher risk of serious outcomes.
From Feb. 5 to March 4, per 100,000 population, there were 120.9 unvaccinated cases in hospital, 32.2 unvaccinated cases in ICU and 14 deaths among the unvaccinated, compared to 40.5 vaccinated (two-dose) cases in hospital, 9.9 vaccinated cases in ICU and 6.6 deaths among people with two doses.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 351,751 total cases and 2,932 deaths.
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