Vancouver Island adds 70 new COVID-19 cases, active cases now 717

Victoria -

Provincial health officials identified 70 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Island region Friday.

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

Island Health's daily case count of 70 narrowly surpassed Vancouver Coastal's total of 69 new cases found Friday.

There are now 5,969 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 717 active cases in the island region, according to the B.C. health ministry.

Island Health data identified the locations of 510 active cases Friday, including 244 in the South Island, 213 in the Central Island and 53 in the North Island.

Thirty-nine patients are in hospital for treatment of COVID-19 in the Island Health region, including 25 patients who require critical care, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Health officials say five more deaths related to COVID-19 were reported in B.C. on Friday. Three were reported in the Fraser Health region, one was recorded in the Interior Health region and one was reported in the Northern Health region.

B.C.'s pandemic death toll has now surpassed 2,000 – with a total of 2,001 COVID-19 related deaths recorded in the province – 72 of which were identified in the Island Health region.

As of Friday, 88.6 per cent of British Columbians aged 12 and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 82.2 per cent have received two doses.

In total, the province has administered 7,937,214 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since December 2020.