B.C. adds 45 COVID-19 cases, rolling average ticks up again in final update of the week

Registered nurse Linda Wright speaks to a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, B.C., Friday, June 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Vancouver -

B.C. health officials reported 45 new cases of COVID-19 and no related deaths in their final pandemic update of the week Friday.

There have now been 148,031 cases of the coronavirus in the province since the pandemic began, and there have been 1,760 deaths.

There are currently 661 active cases in B.C. That total includes 73 people who are hospitalized, 19 of them in intensive care.

The latest infections bring the province's seven-day rolling average for new cases to 42, up one from the previous day.

Friday is the fourth day in a row that the rolling average has increased slightly, after months of declines since its peak in April. It remains a tiny fraction of the 1,130 it had reached back then, however.

Active cases have also ticked up again, for the third consecutive day.

Speaking during a news conference on new visitation rules for long-term care on Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry addressed the recent increases to B.C.'s caseload.

"What we're not seeing is virus spreading rapidly in the community," Henry said. "We're continuing with our strong public health follow-up of cases to make sure that we're isolating people, that we're not allowing outbreaks and clusters to spread rapidly."

Most of the ongoing transmission is being detected in "pockets where we have people who are unimmunized and having contact," she added.

Henry's most recent presentation on the province's modelling of the pandemic, delivered on June 10, predicted a modest increase in infections in July and August. The size of the surge would depend on vaccination rates and the degree to which people increased their social contacts, according to the presentation.  

The written statement on Friday's numbers from B.C.'s Ministry of Health indicates that the total number of cases B.C. has seen includes "a data correction from yesterday" and reflects "reconciliation of records for cases followed up by the federal quarantine program between March and April 2021."

The ministry did not explain the corrections in greater detail.

According to the ministry, 78.6 per cent of all eligible B.C. residents ages 12 and older have received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

A total of 41.3 per cent of people 12 and older are fully vaccinated.

B.C. has now administered 5,565,983 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.