By Pete McIntyre

B.C. Covid update Thursday: 21 deaths, 673 new cases

Dec 17, 2020 | 4:15 PM

B.C. is reporting 21 new COVID-19-related deaths for a second straight day, the majority of them seniors in long term care.

There are 673 new cases, including 66 in Interior Health.

“Here in B.C., the majority of new cases continue to be directly connected to someone we know who has a confirmed case, or a cluster or an outbreak,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, who urged people to get tested if anyone in their social or work circles has a confirmed case, and if they are showing any symptoms.

Elsewhere, there are 145 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 403 in Fraser Health, four in Island Health, 47 in Northern Health and eight cases of people who reside outside can

There are 10,009 active cases, with 358 people in hospital and 93 in intensive or critical care.

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Currently, 10,388 people are actively being monitoring for COVID symptoms, and 32,963 people have recovered from the virus.

The provincial death toll is now at 713.

On positive note, Dr. Henry said more than 1,200 B.C. health care workers have received the COVID-19 vaccine this week in the Lower Mainland, with the immunization clinics expected to be in every health region by next week.

Update on Interior Health numbers

· IH is reporting 66 new cases overnight, for a total of 3,064

· 809 cases are active and on isolation

· Twenty-eight people are in hospital; seven of them in ICU.

· Total number of deaths in IH is 8

Update on outbreaks:

· Big White in Kelowna: The next update will be on Friday.

· Teck mining operations has 12 cases linked to the outbreak.

· McKinney Place long term care in Oliver has had 56 cases – 41 residents and **15 staff. **(Number adjusted from yesterday )

· Village by the Station long-term care in Penticton remains at four cases total.

· Mountainview Village long-term care in Kelowna has had 10 cases in total, five residents and five staff.

by Pete McIntyre