COVID-19 update: B.C. reports 500 cases, 5 related deaths

Vancouver -

British Columbia has recorded another 500 cases of COVID-19 and five related deaths, the government announced Tuesday after revealing plans for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

Tuesday's update pushed the province's seven-day average for infections to 502 per day, up from 488 on Monday.

The number of infectious COVID-19 patients in hospital also increased to 426 – up 19 from Monday – with 124 of them in intensive care.

B.C.'s active case count, which reached a nearly three-month low on Monday, inched up slightly to 4,301.

Recent modelling has indicated transmission is finally getting under control in the province, though health officials have stressed that progress can easily be reversed.

Earlier on Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry asked the public to keep holiday gatherings small this year to avoid another major surge in cases. She also suggested only gathering with people who are fully vaccinated.

The unvaccinated have consistently been over-represented in the province's case numbers, hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

According to the Ministry of Health, people who haven't received a single dose of vaccine made up 58.2 per cent of cases from Nov. 1-7 and 64.2 per cent of hospitalizations from Oct. 25-Nov. 7 – despite only representing about 19 per cent of B.C.'s population, including those who are too young to be vaccinated.

The Ministry of Health could not provide updated vaccination numbers for the province, citing "updates to the Provincial Immunization Registry." Tuesday's update was also issued hours later than usual, shortly after 6 p.m.

By next week, the province is expected to receive its first shipments of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, and Henry said unvaccinated health-care workers who have been placed on unpaid leave will be given first priority for these new single-dose shots.

The J&J vaccine is considered more traditional because it uses virus-based technology, as opposed to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna versions, which use mRNA technology.