21 new cases in Island Health were reported over the weekend by public health, part of 1,667 cases found across B.C.

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

STEADY WEEKEND

COVID-19 vaccine lands in Island Health, 21 new cases over weekend

Dec 21, 2020 | 3:29 PM

NANAIMO — The only approved COVID-19 vaccine has landed on Vancouver Island.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her briefing on Monday, Dec. 21, a second delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was distributed to all health authorities.

The province had previously said vaccination clinics would be set up across B.C. before the end of the year, following a successful roll out of the vaccine through approximately 3,900 people in the Lower Mainland.

Dr. Henry confirmed the news while announcing 1667 new COVID-19 cases from three reporting periods over the weekend, including 21 in Island Health.

The additions take Island Health’s tally to 829 throughout the course of the pandemic, with only 62 currently active COVID-19 cases. Five people are in hospital, one of whom in ICU.

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The south Island has the most cases with 30. The central Island area now has 22, after leading the Island for much of the recent spike and has the most cases on the Island. North Island has 10 active cases.

Across B.C., 9,718 cases are currently active in all health authorities including 341 people in hospital, 80 of whom are in intensive care units. Both numbers are decreased from Friday.

Dr. Henry reported 41 additional fatalities, including one in the Island Health region, the 11th throughout the pandemic.

“We are starting to see a levelling of our COVID-19 curve in B.C. and that is good news, but it is a levelling at a very high level which means transmission continues to happen. We continue to see hundreds of new people with confirmed cases and they expose others.”

Public health continues to monitor the global situation and refine their plans in B.C. accordingly. A new strain of the virus emerged in the United Kingdom over the weekend with as many as 17 mutations from the current version.

“To date we have not seen this variant here in British Columbia,” Dr. Henry said. “We have seen some mutations, particularly when people come from different parts of the world…but that strain we have not seen circulating in Canada or British Columbia.”

Earlier Monday, flights to and from the United Kingdom were suspended in order to insulate the country for new strains developing in Europe.

Dr. Henry noted the new strain does not seem to increase the severity of symptoms or the illness, but does transmit more easily.

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