COVID-19 update: B.C. adds 54 cases, ends six-day streak without a death

A person wears a face mask and shield to curb the spread of COVID-19 while walking in Vancouver on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

VANCOUVER -

British Columbia reported 54 new cases of COVID-19 and one related death on Thursday.

The province has identified a total of 148,282 coronavirus infections and suffered 1,761 related fatalities since the start of the pandemic.

The latest update from the Ministry of Health ends a six-day streak that B.C. enjoyed without a single death related to the disease. The province's seven-day average for fatalities remains at 0.14 per day.

Thursday's case increase left the rolling weekly average for infections at 42 per day, down slightly from 43 as of Wednesday.

The Interior Health region recorded the highest number of new cases (20), followed closely by Fraser Health (19). There were nine cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, five in Island Health, and just one case in Northern Health.

COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped to 63, though the number of patients battling the disease in intensive care increased to 12, up one from Wednesday.

B.C. has administered 5,942,064 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines so far, including enough first doses to cover 79 per cent of the eligible population age 12 and up.

Just under 49 per cent of the eligible population has received both doses.

There remains only one outbreak across B.C.'s health-care system, at Surrey Memorial Hospital's Laurel Place.

Of all the COVID-19 infections identified in the province, 98 per cent – or 145,850 people – have recovered.