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B.C. has 997 more COVID-19 cases Wednesday, hospitalization rises

Vaccination now open to people aged 70 and older
24777341_covid-cases-to-april5.21
Seven-day rolling average of B.C. COVID-19 cases to April 7, 2021. (B.C. Centre for Disease Control)

Intensive care wards in B.C.’s hospitals have 105 seriously ill COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday, with 330 in hospital overall as the key indicator has crept up with additional new cases.

There were 997 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed in the past 24 hours, and three additional deaths.

The latest expansion of the age-based vaccination program took effect Wednesday, opening appointments for people born in 1951 or earlier (age 70 and up). Instructions to register online or by phone are available here and adults of any age can register to be notified when they are eligible.

“Since we last reported, we have had 356 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 465 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 67 in the Island Health region, 91 in the Interior Health region, 18 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a statement April 7.

A separate vaccine program for front-line workers in grocery stores, schools and other locations is awaiting further shipments of vaccine to resume. As of Wednesday, more than 946,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,504 of which are second doses. This is almost 20 per cent of those who are eligible for a vaccine in B.C.

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@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca

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