Data released June 8 show B.C. continuing to control the spread of COVID-19, as more people become fully vaccinated, new cases remain low and no new deaths are recorded.
For the first day during this pandemic, the number of those in the province who received a second dose of a vaccine is higher than the number of those who received their initial dose. B.C. health officials provided 49,545 doses of vaccine to 18,283 new people, while 31,262 others received their dose needed to be considered fully vaccinated.
This brings the total to 345,508 British Columbians who are fully vaccinated, while 2,994,324 have had one dose. In total, health officials have provided 3,685,340 doses of vaccine, and 3,339,832 people have had at least one dose.
"It is very encouraging to see a steady increase in the number of people in our province who are protected with a COVID-19 vaccine," said provincial health officer Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix. "More people are fully vaccinated with both of their doses."
They added that people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine for a first dose get to choose whether to have a second dose of AstraZeneca, or an mRNA vaccine, such as Pfizer or Moderna.
"There is no wrong choice to make," they said. "All of our vaccines are safe and highly effective."
Other good news is that no one has died overnight from COVID-19. This is only the second day since May 5 that there have been no COVID-19 deaths. The province's death toll, therefore, remains at 1,722.
The number of active infections across the province fell for the 32nd consecutive data update, to 2,051 – the lowest total since October 23.
While new daily case-counts as recently as May were around 500 per day, in the eight days in June, all but one were below the 200 threshold. In the past day, 165 new cases were identified, raising the province's total since January, 2020, to 145,695. Nearly 97.4% of those, or 141,879, are deemed by the province to have recovered because they are not thought to still be infectious.
The number of those in hospital with the disease rose by four overnight, to 203, while 57 of those are sick enough to be in intensive care units. The last time there were that few people in ICU was on November 20.
The Fraser Health region remains the province's hot spot for new cases, although the province's most populous health region is no longer responsible for the majority of new cases.
By health region, the 165 infections in the past day includes:
• 30 in Vancouver Coastal Health (18.2%);
• 78 in Fraser Health (47.3%);
• 10 in Island Health (6%);
• 42 in Interior Health (25.4%); and
• five in Northern Health (3%).
The province has declared that the outbreak at Surrey's Brookside Lodge is over.
That means that there are now five outbreaks at seniors' homes. They are:
• Cherington Place in Surrey;
• Glenwood Seniors' Community in Agassiz;
• Heritage Manor in Fort St. John;
• Richmond Lions Manor-Bridgeport in Richmond; and
• Spring Valley Care Centre in Kelowna
The two active outbreaks at B.C. hospitals are at Richmond Hospital and at Kelowna General Hospital.
