Four COVID-19 deaths and 189 new cases in Interior over weekend
The COVID-19 death toll for Interior Health rose to 292 today, as four deaths had been recorded in the region since Saturday.
The fatal cases were part of 11 over the weekend in B.C. To date, 2,333 British Columbians have died due to the virus.
The Ministry of Health also reported that the Interior’s active COVID-19 case count as of Monday was 534 after 189 cases were confirmed in the region over the weekend.
Those cases were part of 970 that were reported in B.C since Friday, with 389 of those tests confirmed Saturday, 309 on Sunday and 272 confirmed Monday.
The ministry said there are 303 British Columbians in hospital due to COVID-19 complications, 115 of whom are in intensive care.
The province has not changed it’s vaccination reporting model to account for children aged 5 to 11 Monday. As of Nov. 29, 91.1 per cent of eligible British Columbians aged 12 and over had received their first shots, and the second dose rate was 87.8 per cent.
It’s noted by the province 55.5 per cent of new cases in the past week were unvaccinated individuals, while 41 per cent of the positive tests came from fully vaccinated individuals.
It’s also noted that in the past two weeks, the unvaccinated have accounted for 61.6 per cent of COVID hospitalizations, while the fully vaccinated made up 32.7 per cent of patients.
Meantime, the B.C. government says it won’t be making any specific changes in response to the latest COVID-19 variant of concern out of southern Africa.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the Omicron variant only shows that residents need to continue to be vigilant and get their vaccinations.
He added B.C. is a world leader in genome sequencing of COVID variants and testing travellers coming back to the province helps to protect residents and the health system.
Dix says 400,000 people have already had their COVID-19 vaccine booster dose — which will also limit the spread if or when the Omicron variant makes its way to B.C.
(With files from The Canadian Press)