COVID-19 update: B.C. adds 89 cases as seven-day average continues to climb
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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet
NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth hadn't sent home any understandable data since last November.