The number of COVID-19 patients in B.C. hospitals has risen by four, to 258, in what is the first increase in a government data update since Feb. 7.
In each of the 30 data updates since Feb. 7, when B.C. had 987 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, there has been a decline in the number of those serious infections.
Of those now in hospital with COVID-19, 49 have serious enough illnesses to require beds in intensive care units (ICUs.)
One person succumbed to the disease in the past day, raising the province's pandemic death toll to 2,975. The government did not reveal any demographic information about that person.
No new outbreaks have been discovered at health-care facilities, or seniors' homes, and none of the five active outbreaks were declared over.
Officials detected 269 new infections in the past 24 hours.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, however, has told vaccinated people with mild symptoms to not get tested so as to free up tests for those who are more vulnerable. As a result she has called the daily case counts "not accurate."
The B.C. government on Feb. 10 stopped providing data for active infections, and the number of those considered to have recovered from COVID-19, for that reason.
Victoria does, however, still provide data for new known infections, and its cumulative total for infections is now 354,603.
Vaccinations help limit the spread of the disease that spawned a global pandemic, and help reduce the seriousness of infections that do occur.
The vast majority of British Columbians are already vaccinated.
In total, 4,526,085 eligible B.C. residents have had at least one dose of vaccine, while 4,341,506 are considered fully vaccinated with two doses, and 2,648,785 have had three doses.
Recent Statistics Canada 2021 census data counted 5,000,879 residents in B.C.
Glacier Media's calculation therefore is that more than 90.5 per cent of B.C.'s total population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and more than 86.8 per cent of the province's total population has had two doses. Nearly 53 per cent have had their third, or booster doses. •
