The B.C. Ministry of Health reported 518 new cases of COVID-19 across the province on Wednesday, for a total of 48,027 cases since the pandemic began.

In total, 11,428 of the cases are in the Vancouver Coastal Region, 29,085 in Fraser Health, 847 in Vancouver Island Health region, 3,440 in Interior Health, 1,652 in Northern Health region, and 108 people whose residence is outside of Canada.

The number of active cases in B.C. has decreased by 344 to 9,137.

There are now a total of 348 people in hospital due to COVID-19, 80 of whom are in critical care — ICU or acute care units.

19 more people have died from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the provincial death toll to 796.

A total of 36,952 people have recovered from novel coronavirus.

So far, 5,603 health care workers in the province have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Vaccine deliveries have now arrived in every health region in BC.

Outbreaks

Two new health-care facility outbreaks have been reported Wednesday, and two outbreaks are now over.

In total, there are 55 long term care and assisted living facilities, and six acute care facilities with ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks.

There remain a number of ongoing COVID-19 exposure sites. B.C. residents are urged to check the BC CDC website for all public alerts about possible exposures to the virus.

Those who may have been exposed are asked to monitor their symptoms, reduce the number of contacts they have, and call 811 to get tested for the virus if they do develop symptoms.

Island Health region

Nine new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Island Health region over the past 24 hours.

In total, there have been 847 cases of COVID-19 in the region, 11 of whom have died. Five people in the region are currently in hospital, and one of them is in critical care after contracting the virus.

Island Health reports that as of Wednesday, December 23, there are 66 active cases in the region.

  • South Vancouver Island  Active cases: 28 (-3); Total Cases: 281 (+2)
  • Central Vancouver Island Active cases: 24 ; Total Cases: 379 (+2)
  • North Vancouver Island Active cases: 14 (+4) ; Total Cases: 187 (+6)

The COVID-19 case curve in the Vancouver Island health region as of December 23 is represented below:

(Island Health)

To date, there have been a total of 1,400,609 novel coronavirus tests conducted across B.C., 153,004 of which were done in the Island Health region.


See all the latest updates about the global COVID-19 pandemic on Vancouver Island


The BCCDC has set up a novel coronavirus telephone information line at 1-833-784-4397 for those who have further questions about this virus.

Anyone concerned that they may have been exposed to, or are experiencing symptoms of the novel coronavirus, should contact their primary care provider, local public health office, or call 8-1-1.

The province has also created the 1-888-COVID-19 line to connect British Columbians needing non-medical information about the pandemic.

As of the time of publication, the total number of COVID-19 patients worldwide has risen to 78,958,517.

Over 1,735,322 people have died from the illness and 55,501,292 have recovered.