COVID-19 update: B.C. records 2,000th coronavirus-related death in pandemic

VANCOUVER -

B.C. has recorded more than 2,000 deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest update from the province revealed.

The grim milestone was announced in Friday's case update, which was released in a written statement. In the 24-hour period since the last COVID-19 update, five more people died from the disease, officials said. That brought the total number of local fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 2,001.

The latest update also announced 743 new infections since Thursday. That brought B.C.'s seven-day average for cases to 671, up from 667 the day before.

The most new cases were recorded in Fraser Health, which counted 265. Another 196 were reported in Northern Health, while Interior Health had 143. Island Health reported 70 new cases. Meanwhile, in spite of being the second-largest health region in the province, Vancouver Coastal Health recorded just 69 new cases.

Active cases increased slightly over the past 24 hours, going from 5,929 to 5,969. Hospitalizations, however, decreased by 13 to 360. Of those, 137 people are in intensive care, which is an increase of five from the previous day.

Officials also said two new outbreaks were reported. One was at Cherington Place in the Fraser Health region while the other was at Haven Hill Retirement Centre in Interior Health. One outbreak, at the Royal Inland Hospital, was declared over. As of Friday's update, there were 17 active outbreaks in health-care facilities.

The majority of new cases and hospitalizations continued to be among unvaccinated people. The provincial health ministry said between Sept. 30 and Oct. 4, people who weren't fully immunized against COVID-19 made up 69.4 per cent of the new cases. In the two-week period from Sept. 23 to Oct. 6, they made up 76.7 per cent of hospitalizations.

As of Friday, 88.6 percent of eligible people aged 12 and older had one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Just over 82 per cent were fully vaccinated. More than 7.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the province.