B.C. adds 663 COVID-19 cases as average decreases for first time in weeks

Vancouver -

B.C. health officials announced 663 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, which caused the province's seven-day average to decrease for the first time in several weeks.

B.C.'s rolling average for new infections dropped from 556 on Thursday to 549.

While the single-day decrease doesn't indicate the province has managed to get case numbers under control, it does mark the first time since July 15 that the average hasn't increased.

B.C.'s active caseload and hospitalizations continued to surge on Friday, and officials announced one more death related to the disease.

There are now 6,345 active cases across the province, the most there's been since May 4. There are also 129 COVID-19 patients in hospital, the highest number since June 17.

Just over 41 per cent of the latest cases came from the Interior Health region, which has been struggling to get transmission under control for weeks. Earlier on Friday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced that some of the local COVID-19 restrictions that were imposed on the Central Okanagan are being expanded across the entire health authority.

She also cast doubt on the likelihood that B.C. will be entering the fourth and final stage of its restart plan in early September, as officials had originally hoped. 

Henry and Dix stressed the importance of getting fully vaccinated in order to help decrease case numbers and hospitalizations, particularly with the highly contagious Delta variant dominating in the province.

B.C. has now administered 7,296,096 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, including enough first doses for 83 per cent of the eligible population age 12 and older. Just over 74 per cent of eligible British Columbians have received both doses.