VANCOUVER -- A provincial health official says another 274 cases of novel coronavirus have been recorded in B.C. in the 24 hours since their previous update, breaking a record for a second day in a row.

Dr. Bonnie Henry gave the daily update at a news conference Thursday, a day after the provincial health officer announced the latest numbers were so high they'd topped the previous largest single-day caseload in the province.

Prior to this week's updates, the previous record was set in mid-September, when the largest single-day caseload of the pandemic reached 179. But there were 203 new cases recorded in B.C. between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

Thursday's total is the highest single-day update the province has seen.

Henry said the latest update brings the total number of active cases to 1,920.

Of those, 71 patients are in hospital, an indicator often considered when looking at the severity of the pandemic. Two dozen are in critical care or intensive care.

Henry said 4,425 people in the province are under "active public health monitoring."

Fortunately, there were no new deaths in the latest reporting period, leaving B.C.'s death toll at 256. And Henry said there were no new health-care outbreaks to report on Thursday.

One of the outbreaks, at a care home known as the Weinberg Residence, has been declared over.

The province is still dealing with 19 active outbreaks in its public health-care system.

There were also no new community outbreaks.

Of the 12,331 people diagnosed with COVID-19 this year, 10,114 – or about 82 per cent – are considered recovered.