No new COVID-19 cases in two B.C. health regions

Interior Health had 182 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, up from the 69 the day before.

The Ministry of Health reported 235 new infections in B.C., with the figures from the two Lower Mainland health regions not available.

“Although 235 new cases are being reported, the total number of cases have only increased by 174 from Tuesday, March 15,” a ministry news release stated. “This has resulted in no new cases reported in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health and a decrease in the overall total number of cases in these health authorities compared to yesterday. This is due to data reconciliation from the preliminary numbers reported yesterday.”

The new cases include:

* Fraser Health: N/A

* Vancouver Coastal Health: N/A

* Interior Health: 182

* Northern Health: 23

* Island Health: 30

* People who reside outside of Canada: zero

There are 329 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (decrease of 16 from Tuesday) and 51 are in intensive care (increase of one).

Eight new deaths have been reported for an overall total of 2,953. One reported death has been removed from the total due to a data correction.

The new deaths include four in Vancouver Coastal Health, two in Fraser Health and one each in Island and Northern Health, with none in the Interior.

There has been one new health-care facility outbreak at Surrey Memorial Hospital (Fraser Health), for a total of nine facilities with ongoing outbreaks, including two in Interior Health, Ponderosa and Hillside Village.

As of today, 90.7 per cent of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 86.8 per cent have had two shots and 56.8 per cent of those 12 and older have received three doses.

Due to a continued delay in BC Centre for Disease Control data, the update on cases and hospitalizations by vaccination status is unavailable today.