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Vancouver Island adds 42 new COVID-19 cases over long weekend

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Health officials identified 42 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Island region over the long weekend as active cases in the region continue to rise.

The new cases were among 742 cases found across British Columbia since Friday. Of the new B.C. cases, 160 were identified on Saturday, 196 were identified on Sunday, 185 were identified on Monday and 201 were found on Tuesday.

There are currently 1,544 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 85 active cases in the island region, according to a statement from the B.C. health ministry.

Island Health officials identified the locations of 79 active cases in the island region Tuesday, including 42 in the South Island, 32 in the Central Island and five in the North Island.

There is currently one person in hospital with COVID-19 in the island region and no one in critical care, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.

DELTA VARIANT ON VANCOUVER ISLAND

The update comes as new data reveals the Delta variant has accounted for most, if not all, new COVID-19 cases recorded on Vancouver Island since the middle of July.

According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, the highly contagious Delta variant accounted for all 30 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the island region between July 18 and July 24.

Delta variant cases made up approximately 61 per cent of all COVID-19 cases across the province that same week, with the Island Health authority reporting the highest prevalence of the variant at 100 per cent, followed by the Interior Health authority at 89 per cent and the Vancouver Coastal Health authority at 57 per cent.

“We know that the same measures that we take to prevent transmission work against all of the variants, including Delta, which is the one that we’re seeing circulating quite frequently right now,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry during an unrelated news conference Tuesday afternoon.

“The vast majority of people who are getting sick with COVID right now have not been immunized,” Henry said. “Less than four per cent of the cases that we’ve had in the last two months have been people who were vaccinated, so we know the vaccine works to protect people.”

One person in the Vancouver Coastal Health region died of COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the province's pandemic death toll to 1,772.

Since the pandemic began, 41 people have died of COVID-19 in the Island Health region, where 5,307 cases have been recorded.

As of Tuesday, 81.4 per cent of British Columbians aged 12 and older have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 67.3 per cent have received two doses.

B.C. health-care workers have administered 6,902,320 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since the vaccines became available in December.

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