B.C. COVID-19 update: 341 new cases, 9 deaths

B.C. health officials announced 341 more cases of COVID-19 and nine related deaths on Thursday.

The latest numbers - released in a written statement from the Ministry of Health - bring the province to 2,915 active cases.

Of those, 220 infectious coronavirus patients are in hospital, including 73 in intensive care.

Both the hospitalization and intensive care numbers fell again on Thursday. The last time there were fewer than 220 patients hospitalized in B.C. was Sept. 6, and the last time there were fewer than 73 in intensive care was on Aug. 22.

B.C.'s rolling seven-day average for daily new cases dipped slightly with the latest update, falling to 342 from 346.

The largest share of new infections confirmed Thursday was in Island Health, where 98 new cases were recorded.

Elsewhere, Fraser Health saw 83 cases, Interior Health saw 70, Vancouver Coastal Health saw 61 and Northern Health saw 29.

Island Health and Fraser Health recorded three deaths each, while Northern Health saw two and Interior Health one.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 221,576 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 2,378.

The ministry does not share the vaccination status of people who contract COVID-19, are hospitalized or die each day. However, it does release case and hospitalization numbers by vaccination status over longer periods of time.

From Dec. 1 to 7, 2,422 were diagnosed with COVID-19 in B.C., according to the ministry. Of that total, 1,308 - or 54 per cent - were not vaccinated, 90 (3.7 per cent) were partially vaccinated, and 1,024 (42.3 per cent) were fully vaccinated.

The unvaccinated accounted for most of the new cases detected during the period despite accounting for just 19 per cent of the total population of the province. Millions more people are vaccinated than unvaccinated, but hundreds more unvaccinated people caught COVID-19 during the week in question.

Hospitalization numbers tell a similar story. Of the 192 people hospitalized for COVID-19 during the two weeks from Nov. 24 to Dec. 7, 116 of them (60.4 per cent) were unvaccinated. Another six (3.1 per cent) were partially vaccinated, and the remaining 70 (36.5 per cent) were fully vaccinated.

In its latest data summary, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control estimates that unvaccinated people are eight times more likely than vaccinated people of the same age to contract COVID-19. They're also 32 times more likely to be hospitalized, 52 times more likely to require intensive care and 25 times more likely to die, according to the BCCDC. 

As of Thursday, 85.9 per cent of eligible people ages five and older in B.C. had received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 82.1 per cent had received both shots.