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B.C. adds 706 cases, 4 deaths in latest COVID-19 update

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Vancouver -

B.C.'s Ministry of Health announced 706 additional cases of COVID-19 and four related deaths on Thursday.

There have now been 177,186 confirmed cases and 1,877 deaths since the pandemic began.

Most new infections continue to be found in people who are not yet fully vaccinated. Between Sept. 8 and 14, 68.1 per cent of the 3,347 new coronavirus cases were among unvaccinated people, according to the ministry.

This is despite the fact that those who are unvaccinated - including children under age 12 who are not eligible - make up only about a quarter of the province's total population.

Among those who are eligible, 86.3 per cent had received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, and 78.8 per cent had received both shots.

Thursday's update brings B.C.'s rolling seven-day average for new cases back below 700 for the first time since last week. The average stands at 693, down from 702 on Wednesday.

There are 5,844 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, a total that includes 291 people who are fighting the disease in hospital. Among the hospitalized, 134 are in intensive care.

Of the 390 coronavirus-related hospitalizations B.C. saw between Sept. 1 and 14, 81.5 per cent were people who are unvaccinated. Only 13.6 were fully vaccinated. The remaining 4.9 per cent were partially vaccinated, a number that likely reflects their small proportion of the population relative to the fully vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.

On Twitter, Health Minister Adrian Dix shared a breakdown of the vaccination status of people who are in intensive care, saying 93 per cent are not fully vaccinated.

Most of the new cases reported Thursday were in the Fraser Health and Interior Health regions, which saw 203 and 213 infections, respectively.

Elsewhere, Vancouver Coastal Health added 105 new cases on Thursday, Northern Health added 104, and Island Health added 81.

For context, though Fraser Health and Interior Health have seen similar numbers of new cases in recent weeks, Fraser Health has more than twice as many residents as Interior Health, meaning it has seen significantly fewer cases on a per-capita basis.

Similarly, though Vancouver Coastal Health and Northern Health saw similar raw numbers of cases on Thursday, the former has nearly 1.2 million residents, compared to the latter's 284,000.

Three of the four deaths announced Thursday were in Fraser Health, while the fourth was in Northern Health.

The health ministry also announced one new outbreak at Menno Terrace East, an assisted-living facility in Abbotsford. Fraser Health said Wednesday that two residents there had tested positive for COVID-19.

Two other outbreaks - at Nicola Meadows in Merritt and Rose Wood Village in Trail - have ended, leaving B.C. with 23 active outbreaks in its health-care system, according to the ministry. 

 

 

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