Interior’s active COVID-19 case count up, vaccination stats updated to include children

The active COVID-19 case count for the Interior rose to 552 as 85 new cases were recorded in the region Tuesday, Nov. 30.

The new cases were part of 358 confirmed across B.C., and the provincial active case count for the day was 2,889.

The province did not register any new COVID deaths, but the number of hospitalized patients increased to 300, with 104 British Columbians in intensive care due to complications from the virus.

The province also added children aged 5 to 11 to its daily vaccination rates. As of Tuesday, 84.8 per cent of eligible British Columbians over the age of five had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 81.7 per cent had received both doses.

The province notes that 91.1 per cent of British Columbians aged 12 and over, and 91.5 per cent of eligible adults have received their first doses of a vaccine. The second dose rates for those groups are 87.8 and 88.3 per cent, respectively.

Additionally, 10 per cent of British Columbians over the age of 12 have received a booster.

The Ministry of Health notes that the unvaccinated continue to make up the majority of both new cases and hospitalizations.

In the past week, 54.2 per cent of new cases were unvaccinated people, while the fully vaccinated accounted for 41.8 per cent of cases. The remaining four per cent were partially vaccinated individuals.

Over the course of two weeks, 60.5 per cent of COVID-19 hospitalizations were unvaccinated individuals, while 34.1 per cent of patients were fully vaccinated, and 5.4 per cent were partially vaccinated.

As of Tuesday, there were five health-care facility outbreak sites in B.C., though none were located in the Interior.