No stop to B.C.’s rising COVID numbers, record set for fourth straight day

New records continue to be set each day this week for new COVID-19 cases in British Columbia.

The province reported 2,441 cases on Friday, the highest daily total since the pandemic started for a fourth straight day.

The total was just shy of 400 cases higher than Thursday’s 2,046.

Interior Health  had 188 new cases, far below the 1,001 in Vancouver Coastal Health and 967 in Fraser Health. Northern Health had the lowest amount with 66 while Island Health had 219.

There are currently 10,415 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 192 people in hospital and 71 in intensive care.

Interior Health has 778 active cases, up 79 from the day before.

There have been 1,613 cases of the Omicron variant of concern confirmed in B.C., a jump of more than 600 from 975 on Thursday:

* Fraser Health: 263

* Vancouver Coastal Health: 959

* Interior Health: 40

* Northern Health: four

* Island Health: 347

Four more people have died of the virus for an overall total of 2,414, with one in IH, two in Fraser Health and one in the North.

As of Friday, 87.8 per cent of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 82.8 percent have had two doses, and 19% (806,246) have received three doses.

From Dec. 16-22, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 21.9 percent of cases and from Dec. 9-22 they accounted for 67.2 per cent of hospitalizations.

There has been one new health-care facility outbreak at Ridgeview Lodge (Interior Health), for a total of two facilities with ongoing outbreaks.