Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry danced around confirming a third wave of the pandemic in B.C. (flickr/Gov't of B.C.)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

covid-19 update

Active COVID-19 cases in Island Health continue to rise after big weekend

Mar 22, 2021 | 4:20 PM

NANAIMO — The upswing of COVID-19 cases in Island Health continues.

The health authority announced 78 new cases on Monday, March 22 since Friday. This is slightly above the three day weekend reporting period the week before. It was the fourth worst weekend reporting period for Island Health since the pandemic began.

There’s currently 232 active cases within Island Health, which is an increase but still down significantly from the high of more than 300 at the beginning of March.

Central Vancouver Island is no longer home to a majority of the active cases. There’s 110 in central Vancouver Island compared to 102 in the southern area of the health authority. Central Vancouver Island led the health authority in active cases for much of the pandemic with roughly two-thirds of active cases.

There is a data discrepancy between Island Health and the province, based on the timing of COVID-19 results. NanaimoNewsNOW reports local verified data from Island Health.

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There were no fatalities in Island Health over the weekend, compared to 15 across the rest of B.C.

Nearly 1,800 new cases were uncovered since Friday, primarily in the Lower Mainland.

The number of active cases in B.C. reached the highest point since Jan. 10 with 5,290 cases active.

Hospitalizations crested 300 for the fist time since Jan. 27.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said 166 new cases of COVID-19 variants were discovered, with most being the UK variant. There’s currently 237 active cases out of nearly 1,400 since the variants were found in B.C.

“It’s much easier to spread it with even minimal contact in indoor settings. The areas we know it spreads most quickly and dangerously are the same as last year, but now there’s even less margin for error.”

Dr. Henry danced around saying B.C. was in a third wave of the pandemic after the highs of fall, 2020.

It’s a slow and steady increase…(which) can quickly get out of control. Concerningly, we’re starting to see younger people affected and needing hospital and ICU care. At the same time, we’re having more and more people protected by these vaccines.”

Nearly 540,000 doses of vaccine have been administered by Monday.

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