B.C. Covid cases up by 682; 40 new cases in Interior Health

Mar 23, 2021 | 4:45 PM

B.C.’s COVID-19 case count has grown by 682 new cases Tuesday (Mar. 23), including 40 new cases within Interior Health.

The numbers are included in an update to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control online dashboard.

The new cases swell B.C.’s total to 93,253 since the pandemic arrived, spread out thusly:

21,976 — Vancouver Coastal (up by 229)
54,409 — Fraser Health (up by 333)
2,975 — Island Health (up by 19)
8,127 — Interior Health (up by 76)
5,599 — Northern Health (up by 23)
167 — Reside outside of Canada (up by 2)

The totals include 36 cases in Interior Health being reported Tuesday, but from 2020 and identified through a data review.

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“The Interior Health region has seen our daily case count drop in the last few weeks and I thank everyone for doing their part and continuing to follow the precautions,” IH chief medical health officer Dr. Albert de Villiers said. “As part of cleaning up the data, we have added some historic cases to our total number of cases today. As the vaccination roll-out accelerates, more and more people will have that added layer of protection, but in the meantime, keep your activities outside.”

There are now 5,409 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., up 119 from Monday. That includes 314 people in hospital and 83 in critical care.

Within Interior Health, there are 343 active cases, up by 49 from Monday. There are 14 people in hospital and six in critical care.

One more person has died of the virus, swelling B.C.’s death toll to 1,438. The death did not occur in Interior Health, leaving the regional death toll at 114.

There are 144 newly-identified cases considered variants of concern, raising B.C.’s total to 1,510. One-hundred-seventy-one of those cases are still active.

A total of 9,488 people are under active public health monitoring due to direct COVID-19 exposure.

Another 86,307 people are considered fully recovered, or 93 per cent of all recorded cases.

The province says 557,508 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered so far.

Update on IH outbreaks:

· Cottonwoods Care Centre long-term care in Kelowna has 23 cases: 20 residents and three staff.

· Kelowna General Hospital unit 5B has eight cases: four patients and four staff, with one death connected to the outbreak.

by James Peters

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