B.C. Covid update: 1,462 new cases; rules on gatherings could be relaxed

British Columbia is reporting 1,462 new Covid-19 cases since Friday, or an average of 487 a day.

There were 79 new cases in Interior Health, and there were 11 more deaths (total 1,391).

There are 144 new variant cases, mostly in the Lower Mainland, with six variant cases in the Interior.

On the vaccine front, 333,327 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered, including 86,925 second doses.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said in the weeks ahead, they will start to look at a modified return of some activities that have been on pause the last few months.

“We’re not going to rush to get things open, but we will take a thoughtful, careful and phased approach over next few weeks. I like to think of it as slowly turning up the dial rather than flicking a switch because we know we’re not yet in a place where we can go back to our pre-pandemic gatherings,” Henry said at Monday’s Covid update.

The province’s top doctor says it could mean the return of outside gatherings and outside group activities by Spring Break that starts this weekend.

Henry said the return of sports and religious ceremonies is also expected over the coming weeks.

Case counts over the weekend:

Sat: 545
Sun: 532
Mon: 385

Total 1,462
Grand total 84,569

New case counts by health region:

407 Vancouver Coastal
802 Fraser
72 Island
79 Interior
102 Northern

There are 4,854 active cases, with 240 people in hospital, with 66 in critical or intensive care.

Currently, 8,723 people are under active monitoring, and 78,237 who had Covid-19, are considered recovered.

There is one new health care outbreak at Cottonwoods long-term care in Kelowna with 12 cases.

Dr. Henry said all residents there were offered vaccines, but the outbreak shows that doesn’t mean all transmissions will be stopped.

Along with the 144 new variant cases, there are now 394 total with 87 active cases.

Most of those are the U.K. variant with 31 of the South African. Most of the variant cases are in the Fraser region (303), with 74 in Vancouver and six in both the Island and Interior.