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Richmond recently experienced further growth in its new COVID-19 cases, recording 83 between Dec. 5 and 11 compared to 65 the previous week and 35 the week before that.

COVID-19 cases more than double last weekend’s count

By Richmond Sentinel

Published 4:38 PST, Mon December 20, 2021

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B.C. health officials reported 2,550 new cases of COVID-19 since Friday—the highest three-day count since April. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 228,335 cases.

“Public health is monitoring the increase in cases in British Columbia and developments in other jurisdictions, and will outline additional COVID-19 measures during Tuesday's regular media briefing,” said health officials in a joint statement.

They noted an update on cases of the Omicron variant of concern will also be provided tomorrow.

Of the new cases, 909 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond)—again topping all health regions across the province after just 202 combined cases over a three-day period last weekend. There were 877 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 415 in the Island Health region, 268 in the Interior Health region, 81 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are 5,435 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., an increase of more than 1,100 from Friday’s number; 185 of those people are hospitalized, 77 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 9,165,398 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 4,118,432 of those are second doses and 727,761 are third doses.

This means that 92.1 per cent of adults, 91.7 per cent of people aged 12 and older and 87.3 per cent of people aged five and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 89.3 per cent of adults, 88.8 per cent of those aged 12 and older and 82.6 per cent of those aged five and older have received two doses. Seventeen per cent of adults and 16 per cent of those aged 12-plus have received three doses.

Sadly, there were three new virus-related deaths reported since Friday, bringing that total to 2,402. Of those who died, one lived in the Fraser Health region, one in the Island Health region and one in the Northern Health region.

An active outbreak continues at one acute care facility.

The share of cases among vaccinated people is growing quickly, amounting to 60.6 per cent of the cases between Dec. 10 and 16 compared to 45.1 per cent the previous week (Dec. 3 to 9) and 41.7 per cent the week before that (Nov. 26 to Dec. 2).

However, vaccinated people are making up a smaller percentage of hospitalizations—28.6 per cent between Dec. 3 and 16 compared to 32.1 per cent a week ago (Nov. 26 to Dec. 9) and 33.9 per cent two weeks ago (Nov. 19 to Dec. 2).

From Dec. 10 to 16, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 39.4 per cent of cases.
From Dec. 3 to 16, they accounted for 71.4 per cent of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Dec. 10 to 16)—Total 3,721

• Not vaccinated: 1,397 (37.5 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 69 (1.9 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 2,255 (60.6 per cent)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Dec. 3 to 16)—Total 154

• Not vaccinated: 104 (67.5 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 6 (3.9 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 44 (28.6 per cent)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 10 to 16)

• Not vaccinated: 190.7

• Partially vaccinated: 34.3

• Fully vaccinated: 49.7

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 3 to 16)

• Not vaccinated: 23.8

• 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.