Vancouver Island adds 1 new COVID-19 death, 57 cases

Victoria -

One more person has died of COVID-19 in the Island Health region and 57 new cases of the illness have been identified Friday, according to the B.C. Healthy Ministry.

The new cases were among 743 cases found across the province over the past 24 hours.

There are now 5,979 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 660 active cases in the island region, according to the Health Ministry.

Island Health identified the locations of 535 active cases Friday, including 318 in the South Island, 176 in the Central Island and 41 in the North Island.

Thirty-three people are currently in hospital for treatment of COVID-19 in the Island Health region, including 21 people who require critical care, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Seven deaths related to COVID-19 were reported across B.C. on Friday, including the one death in the Island Health region. Four of the other deaths were reported in the Fraser Health region, one was announced in the Interior Health region and one was identified in the Northern Health region.

Since the pandemic began, 1,922 people have died of COVID-19 in B.C., including 60 deaths in the Vancouver Island region.

There are currently 21 active COVID-19 outbreaks at health-care facilities across British Columbia.

One of the outbreaks is located at a Victoria long-term care home.

Meanwhile, five schools on Vancouver Island have active COVID-19 clusters, according to Island Health.

Latest update on vaccinations

Health officials say that most COVID-19 cases reported over the past week were identified in people who are not fully vaccinated.

Between Sept. 16 and Sept. 22, people who are not vaccinated made up 67.3 per cent of confirmed COVID-19 cases, while partially vaccinated people made up 7.7 per cent of cases.

People who are fully vaccinated made up 25 per cent of cases during this time, according to the B.C. Ministry of Health. 

As of Friday, 87.5 per cent of British Columbians aged 12 and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 80 per cent of eligible people have received two doses.

In total, the province has administered 7,771,314 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since it began its immunization campaign in December 2020.