Vancouver Island adds 54 new COVID-19 cases, active cases reach 618

Victoria -

B.C. health officials identified 54 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Island region Thursday.

The new cases were among 596 cases found across the province over the past 24 hours.

There are currently 4,451 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 618 active cases in the Island Health region, according to the B.C. Ministry of Health.

The Island Health region continues to have a higher active case count than Vancouver Coastal Health and Northern Health, where 565 and 616 cases are active Thursday, respectively.

Nov. 4, 2021: (Province of B.C.)

Island Health data identified the locations of 517 active cases Thursday, including 126 in the South Island, 323 in the Central Island and 68 in the North Island.

Eight COVID-19 deaths were reported in B.C. Thursday, none of which were located in the island region.

Three deaths were reported in Fraser Health, three deaths occurred in Northern Health and two deaths were confirmed in Vancouver Coastal Health.

Since the pandemic began, 2,200 people have died of COVID-19 in B.C., including 97 deaths in the Island Health region.

There are currently 37 active COVID-19 outbreaks at health-care facilities across the province, including two located in the Island Health region.

Earlier Thursday, Island Health announced that new cases were linked to the outbreaks at a hospital and a care home in Nanaimo.

Approximately 90.1 per cent of all eligible British Columbians have now received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 85.6 per cent have received two doses, according to the Health Ministry.

LATEST MODELLING DATA

Earlier Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry presented an update on the latest COVID-19 modelling data in the province.

The update showed that Island Health currently has the highest R rate in in the province, which refers to the average rate of transmission.

An R rate of 1 means that people who test positive for COVID-19, on average, transmit the illness to one other person. Above 1 means that they are passing the illness on to more than one person, and below 1 means that they are transmitting the disease to less than one person, on average.

Health officials have said that it is important to keep the R rate at or below 1. The Island Health region currently has an R rate of 1.04, the highest in the province.

All other R rates are just below 1, with the lowest being 0.7 in the Northern Health region, and the highest being 0.93 in the Interior Health region.

The R rate model is only a snapshot of conditions on a weekly basis, with modelling showing that the R rate on Vancouver Island could dip to as low as 0.7 or as high as 1.06 by next week.

Nov. 4, 2021: (Province of B.C.)