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B.C. health officials provided a COVID-19 data update today.

COVID-19 cases growing again, in Richmond and beyond

Published 3:41 PST, Thu December 16, 2021

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There were 83 new COVID-19 cases in Richmond last week (Dec. 5 to 11), a local high not seen since briefly in late August.

The previous week (Nov. 28 to Dec. 4) there were 65 new cases, nearly double the 35 the week before that (Nov. 21 to 27).

And the pattern across the rest of the province is no better, with a seven-week high 753 new cases announced today. Further, 240 of today’s cases were located in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (which includes Richmond), the highest total among health authorities for the second straight day.

Meanwhile, the province is now up to 135 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of concern, of which 20 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 38 in the Fraser Health region, 71 in the Island Health region, five in the Interior Health region and one in the Northern Health region.

Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 224,998 cases. Of today’s new cases outside the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 232 are in the Fraser Health region, 137 in the Island Health region, 99 in the Interior Health region, 45 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are 3,878 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 184 of those people are hospitalized, 70 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 9,067,590 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 4,110,723 of those are second doses and 660,784 are third doses.

This means that 92.0 per cent of adults, 91.6 per cent of people aged 12 and older and 86.8 per cent of people aged five and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 89.2 per cent of adults, 88.7 per cent of those aged 12 and older and 82.5 per cent of those aged five and older have received two doses. Fifteen per cent of adults and 14 per cent of those aged 12-plus have received three doses.

Sadly, there were three new virus-related deaths reported today, bringing that total to 2,396. Of those who died, one lived in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, one in the Fraser Health region and one in the Island Health region.

As of today, there are no active outbreaks in healthcare facilities.

From Dec. 8 to 14, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 46.3 per cent of cases. From Dec. 1 to 14, they accounted for 70.2 per cent of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Dec. 8 to 14)—Total 2,980

• Not vaccinated: 1,316 (44.2 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 64 (2.1 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 1,600 (53.7 per cent)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Dec. 1 to 14)—Total 151

• Not vaccinated: 100 (66.2 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: six (4.0 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 45 (29.8 per cent)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 8 to 14)

• Not vaccinated: 176.5

• Partially vaccinated: 32.8

• Fully vaccinated: 35.3

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 1 to 14)

• Not vaccinated: 22.6

• Partially vaccinated: 4.9

• Fully vaccinated: 1.0

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and to find a testing centre near you: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.