Significant drop of active COVID-19 cases in Northern Health, province totals 18 variant infections

The amount of active cases of COVID-19 in BC has seen a major decrease.

B.C. Health Officials report 4,134 active infections, down by 423 since Friday.

Northern Health has also seen a significant decrease in active cases with 359, which is down 150 from 509 during Friday’s report.

Over the weekend (72 hours), British Columbia saw an increase of 1158 cases, including 98 in Northern Health.

3,489 of the province’s 67, 937 infections have been in the north.

Breakdown by day:

Fri – Sat: 408

Sat-Sun: 473

Sun-Mon: 277

21 people have passed away from the virus since Friday bringing the provincial death toll to 1,210.

Seven of those deaths are in the north bringing the region to 74.

Northern Health spokesperson Eryn Collins says “a number of the recent weekend deaths will have been those associated with the outbreak at Acropolis Manor in Prince Rupert.”

Provincial Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry says there are now 18 COVID-19 variant cases.

Four of which are the South African Variant, three unlinked and one linked, all in Vancouver Coastal.

There have been 14 UK Variant cases, including 7 new cases.

Seven are travel related.

Eight of the cases are in Fraser, one in the Interior, four are on Vancouver Island.

So far, Northern Health has not reported a variant case.

The province is doing random sampling testing in virus hotspots, and genome sequencing will be done for all cases of COVID-19 detected in school-aged children.

Doctor Henry says the random testing will be done with rapid and PCR tests.

She adds the highest concern in BC is community spread of the variants in the province.

Meanwhile, there are 289 people in hospital and 79 people in ICU.

21 people have died from COVID-19 in the past 72 hours for a total of 1,210.

Seven of those deaths are in the north.

For vaccines, 138,892 people have received single doses and 4,491 have gotten their second dose.

The province has hired the Red Cross to provide non-clinical support services at certain Long Term Care homes, beginning with Lower Mainland facilities.

32 outbreaks are ongoing in the healthcare system.

Breakdown:

Van Coastal: 15,626 (+295)
Fraser: 40,677 (+493)
Island: 1,675 (+78)
Interior: 6,345 (+194)
North: 3,489 (+98)
Other countries: 139

#CovidBC update: 1,158 new cases since we last reported, for a total of 67,937.

Jan 29-30: 408 cases
Jan 30-31: 473 cases
Last 24 hrs: 277 cases

There have been 21 new deaths, for a total of 1,210. To date 138,892 doses of vaccine have been administered. https://t.co/F1Mc4yzhZ9 pic.twitter.com/5jEUY0rJ4A

— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) February 2, 2021