VANCOUVER -- British Columbia announced another 14 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, as well as 500 new infections.
The province has now recorded 1,104 coronavirus-related deaths and 62,412 cases since the start of the pandemic.
In a written statement, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix offered condolences to "everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic."
B.C. has identified an average of 477 infections identified per day over the last week, and there are now 4,345 active cases across the province. That includes 320 people in hospital, 66 of whom are in intensive care.
Henry and Dix also provided an updated on the province's immunization program, which has been disrupted by the news that Canada is no longer expecting any shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week.
B.C. has administered 98,125 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines so far, and received a total of 133,475 doses. The province was expecting to receive about 5,800 more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week, but said the delay won't impact its ability to administer second doses on the extended interval of 35 days they had already agreed upon.
The first British Columbians to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had their initial dose 36 days ago from Wednesday.
As the rest of the province awaits their turn, Henry and Dix urged everyone to stay the course and continue making responsible choices to limit coronavirus transmission.
"Our COVID-19 curve is trending in the right direction, and we want to keep that going – to push our curve down, which in turn, will allow us to safely ease restrictions," they said.
"We thank everyone for continuing to do their part to stop the spread in our communities and helping all of us to get to the finish line faster. With each day that we follow the public health measures, our communities and our loved ones are safer. Let’s keep going."
Health officials also announced two new health-care outbreaks, at Villa Cathay Care Home in Vancouver and Acropolis Manor in Prince Rupert. Four others have been declared over.
There is also one new community outbreak, at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre. Officials did not reveal how many cases are associated with the outbreak, but said Fraser Health is conducting contact-tracing and providing support to B.C. Corrections.
