Today, active cases continued to decrease overall, with a mix of increases and decreases occurring in the five health authority regions.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations increased and there were 25 flights listed with potential exposures.
B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced at a briefing today that third doses are being expanded to include approximately 100,000 more immunocompromised individuals who are moderately to severely immunocompromised.
The list includes those who:
- have had solid-organ transplant and are taking immunosuppressive therapy;
- are on active treatment for solid tumour or hematologic malignancies (like myeloma or leukemia);
- have had a hematopoietic stem cell transplant;
- have moderate to severe primary immunodeficiency;
- are on dialysis and/or with severe kidney or renal disease;
- have had a prior AIDS–defining illness or HIV infection within specific parameters (see details at link below);
- are on active treatment in several categories of immunosuppressive therapies (see details at link below).
Information about eligibility is available at the B.C. vaccination website.
Today, the B.C. Public Service Agency announced that all of its 30,000 employees must be fully vaccinated by November 22. Public service employees will be required to show proof of full vaccination with the B.C. Vaccine Card.
In addition, visitors to healthcare facilities will be required to have proof of full vaccinations. As of October 12, all visitors to long-term care and assisted-living facilities will need to show their B.C. Vaccine Card for proof of full immunization. After that, all visitors to acute-care settings will also need to show they are fully vaccinated as of October 26.
Today, the B.C. Health Ministry is reporting 593 new COVID-19 cases, including nine epi-linked cases.
Currently, there are 5,937 active cases, which is a decrease of 49 cases since yesterday.
The new and active cases include:
- 203 new cases in Fraser Health, with 2,300 total active cases (33 fewer cases than yesterday);
- 128 new cases in Interior Health, with 1,151 total active cases (19 more cases than yesterday);
- 107 new cases in Island Health, with 723 total active cases (83 more cases);
- 87 new cases in Northern Health, with 836 total active cases (129 fewer cases);
- 68 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, with 869 total active cases (10 more cases);
- no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada, with 58 total active cases (one more case).
Today, 345 individuals are in hospital, which is 19 more people than yesterday, and 144 of those patients are in intensive care units (two more than yesterday).
Some good news: no new deaths have been reported. That leaves the overall total number of fatalities at 1,983 people who have died.
An overall total of 182,045 people who tested positive have recovered, which includes 741 recoveries since yesterday.
As of today, B.C. has reported a cumulative total of 190,372 COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.
Since December, B.C. administered 7,894,975 doses of Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines.
As of today, 88.3 percent (4,092,813) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 81.7 percent (3,789,179) received their second dose.
In addition, 88.8 percent (3,840,329) of all eligible adults in B.C. have received their first dose and 82.5 percent (3,568,189) received their second dose.
People not fully vaccinated accounted for 70.7 percent of cases from September 27 to October 3 and they accounted for 78.1 percent of hospitalizations from September 20 to October 3.
Northern Health has declared an outbreak at the internal medicine unit at University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George, where seven patients have tested positive.
Meanwhile, Fraser Health declared an outbreak over at Menno Terrace East in Abbotsford.
The B.C. Health Ministry stated that there is a total of 19 active outbreaks in healthcare facilities.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) has added the following 25 flights to its lists of potential public exposures:
- September 20: Air Canada Flight 344, Vancouver to Ottawa;
- September 21: WestJet Flight 491, Calgary to Comox;
- September 21: Air Canada Flight 563, San Francisco to Vancouver;
- September 22: Flair Airlines 8500, Waterloo to Vancouver;
- September 22: Air Canada Flight 192, Victoria to Toronto;
- September 22: Flair Flight 8500, Waterloo to Vancouver;
- September 23: Air Canada Flight 295, Fort St. John to Vancouver;
- September 25: Air Canada Flight 860, Vancouver to London;
- September 26: Air Canada Flight 860, Vancouver to London;
- September 26: United Airlines Flight 5689, San Francisco to Vancouver;
- September 27: British Airways Flight 84, Vancouver to London;
- September 27: Air Canada Flight 123, Toronto to Vancouver;
- September 28: Air Canada Flight 221, Calgary to Vancouver;
- September 28: United Airline Flight 5991, Denver to Vancouver;
- September 28: Air Canada Flight 4, Tokyo to Vancouver;
- September 28: Air Canada Flight 127, Toronto to Vancouver;
- September 29: Air Canada Flight 208, Vancouver to Calgary;
- September 29: Delta Airline Flight 4476, Seattle to Vancouver;
- September 29: Air Canada/Jazz Flight 8051, Vancouver to Victoria;
- September 30: Air Canada Flight 295, Fort St. John to Vancouver;
- September 30: Air Canada Flight 296, Vancouver to Fort St. John;
- September 30: Air Canada Flight 397, Calgary to Victoria;
- September 30: Air Canada Flight 553, Los Angeles to Vancouver;
- October 1: Air Canada Flight 217, Calgary to Vancouver;
- October 2: Air Canada Flight 3, Vancouver to Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Sobeys listed one employee who last worked on October 3 at the Thrifty Foods located at 475 Simcoe Street in Victoria as testing positive.
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