The B.C. Ministry of Health reported 582 new cases of COVID-19 across the province on Thursday, for a total of 48,609 cases since the pandemic began.
In total, 11,535 of the cases are in the Vancouver Coastal Region, 29,411 in Fraser Health, 857 in Vancouver Island Health region, 3,511 in Interior Health, 1,720 in Northern Health region, and 108 people whose residence is outside of Canada.
The number of active cases in B.C. has decreased by 272 to 8,865.
There are now a total of 341 people in hospital due to COVID-19, 78 of whom are in critical care — ICU or acute care units.
12 more people have died from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the provincial death toll to 808.
A total of 37,784 people have recovered from novel coronavirus.
So far, 8,178 health care workers and long term care facility residents in the province have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Outbreaks
No new health-care facility outbreaks have been reported Thursday, and one outbreak is now over.
In total, there are 54 long term care and assisted living facilities, and six acute care facilities with ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks.
No new community outbreaks were reported today.
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
10 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Island Health region over the past 24 hours.
In total, there have been 857 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 Thursday, December 24, there are 65 active cases in the region.
- South Vancouver Island Active cases: 30 (+2); Total Cases: 287 (+6)
- Central Vancouver Island Active cases: 22 (-2) ; Total Cases: 382 (+3)
- North Vancouver Island Active cases: 13 (-1) ; Total Cases: 188 (+1)
The COVID-19 case curve in the Vancouver Island health region as of December 24 is represented below:
To date, there have been a total of 1,409,122 novel coronavirus tests conducted across B.C., 153,562 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 79,670,645.
Over 1,747,874 people have died from the illness and 56,070,429 have recovered.
