COVID-19 update: B.C. adds 89 cases as seven-day average continues to climb

Barbara Violo, pharmacist and owner of The Junction Chemist Pharmacy, draws up a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in Toronto, Friday, June 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Vancouver -

British Columbia reported 89 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, causing the province's rolling weekly average to climb for the sixth day in a row.

B.C. has recorded an average of 63 cases per day over the past week, up from 42 cases per day as of last Friday.

While infection numbers have inched upward since the government relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, they're still a fraction of the alarming highs recorded at the peak of the province's third wave in April, when the rolling average reached 1,130 per day.

Deaths related to the disease also remain very low. There were no coronavirus-related fatalities reported on Thursday, leaving the province's death toll at 1,763 and the seven-day average at 0.29 per day.

Back in December, B.C. was suffering an average of 19 coronavirus-related deaths per day.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have been decreasing as well, though not consistently. The number of patients battling the disease in hospital increased to 53 on Thursday, an increase of five from the day before. That includes 15 people in intensive care.

B.C. has administered a total of 6,361,627 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, including enough first doses for 80 per cent of eligible residents age 12 and up.

Just under 57 per cent of those eligible have received both shots.

There are still two active coronavirus outbreaks in the province's health care system, including at the Holy Manor long-term care home in Maple Ridge.

Before that outbreak was announced on Monday, there had not been an outbreak a long-term care home or assisted living facility in more than a week.