VANCOUVER -- Health officials announced another 163 confirmed COVID-19 cases involving variants of concern on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 880.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the cases were identified "retrospectively," and are not in addition to the 1,506 infections identified over the weekend.
"Of the total cases of variants, 195 are still active cases and the remaining are past their infectious period," Henry said.
The B.1.1.7 variant initially associated with the U.K. makes up the majority of variant cases, with 818 confirmed infections so far. There are also now 41 cases involving the B.1.351 variant discovered in South Africa, and 21 involving the P.1 variant associated with Brazil.
"As expected most of these cases are in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health region," Henry said.
Some 681 of B.C.'s variant cases were identified in the Fraser Health region that spans from Burnaby to Boston Bar, and 161 were identified in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Another eight were identified on Vancouver Island, 23 in the B.C. Interior and one case has recently been confirmed in the province's Northern Health region.
Last week, during a COVID-19 modelling presentation, Henry indicated about 10 per cent of new cases being identified in the province involve variants. While that's much lower than the rate of about 42 per cent being recorded in Ontario as of last week, health officials said the number is on the rise in B.C.
