COVID-19 update: B.C. adds 109 cases, 1 related death

VANCOUVER -

B.C. added another 109 cases of COVID-19 to its total on Friday in the last scheduled pandemic update of the week.

The latest infections brought the province's rolling seven-day average to 104 cases per day, the lowest it's been since Oct. 1.

Health officials also announced one additional death from COVID-19 on Friday.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 146,902 cases of the coronavirus in B.C. and 1,740 related deaths.

Friday's numbers came in a written statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

The pair also announced that B.C. has crossed the 75 per cent mark for COVID-19 vaccines administered to the eligible population.

A total of 75.1 per cent of all B.C. residents 12 and older have now received at least a first dose, as have 76.7 per cent of adults ages 18 and over.

The province has administered a total of 4,296,151 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, including 823,371 second doses.

“Being fully vaccinated – with both doses – gives you and those around you maximum protection, which is why we encourage everyone to book your second dose as soon as you are eligible," Henry and Dix said in their statement.

“This weekend, for Father’s Day, let’s do our part and honour our fathers by protecting them with our own COVID-19 vaccine,” the pair added.

Currently, there are 1,389 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., with 128 people hospitalized, 48 of them in intensive care units.

The number of hospitalizations declined slightly for the third consecutive day, but the number of people in ICU has increased slightly on each of those days.

Indeed, 48 people in ICU is the highest total B.C. has seen in more than a week, but it's still less than a third of the record-high 178 coronavirus patients who required intensive care in B.C. on April 29.

Most of the new cases B.C. added Friday were in the Fraser Health region, where 65 new infections were reported.

There were 26 new cases in Interior Health, 13 in Vancouver Coastal Health, five in Northern Health and none in Island Health.