British Columbia reported two more COVID-19 deaths, as the number of cases in hospital increased for the second time in a week.
Health officials reported 260 cases in hospital, an overnight increase of five, including 50 cases in critical or intensive care.
On Wednesday, officials reported the number of cases in hospital had ticked upward for the first time after more than six weeks of steady decline.
There were three new outbreaks in long-term care facilities, leaving seven outbreaks in health-care settings: six in long-term care and one at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
Thursday’s update also confirmed 218 new cases, however daily case counts have offered a limited perspective on the virus’ spread since the province began limiting access to PCR tests in December.
As of Friday, 87.9 per cent of B.C.’s population (90.8 per cent of those available) has had one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 84.4 per cent of B.C.’s population (87.2 per cent of those eligible) have had two doses, and 49.6 per cent of B.C.’s population (57.3 per cent of those eligible) have had three doses.
People with two or more doses accounted for 84.2 per cent of cases over the past week and 73.8 per cent of hospitalizations over the past two weeks.
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However, monthly B.C. CDC data continues to show unvaccinated people at a significantly higher risk of severe outcomes.
From Feb. 19 to March 18, per 100,000 population, among unvaccinated people there were 90.5 cases in hospital, 16 unvaccinated cases in ICU and 9.1 deaths, compared to 29.9 cases in hospital, 6.2 cases in ICU and four deaths among people with two or more doses.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 355,092 total cases while 2,983 people have died.
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