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B.C. schools were set to reopen Jan. 3, but now only the children of essential workers will return that day with most other students set to return Jan. 10.

Return to school delayed for most B.C. students

By Richmond Sentinel

Published 5:44 PST, Wed December 29, 2021

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Only the children of B.C. essential workers will return to school as originally planned next week, with most students returning on Jan. 10.

The news comes on the same day as another daily COVID-19 case count record, with 2,944 new cases in the last 24 hours. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 246,671 cases.

Of the new cases, 571 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 1,591 in the Fraser Health region, 309 in the Island Health region, 374 in the Interior Health region, 99 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

The province has now confirmed 2,452 cases of the Omicron variant of concern. Of those, 1,265 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 628 in the Fraser Health region, 436 in the Island Health region, 114 in the Interior Health region, seven in the Northern Health region and two unknown.

There are a record 16,014 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 206 of those people are hospitalized, 66 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 9,337,772 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 4,129,587 of those are second doses and 858,774 are third doses.

This means that 92.3 per cent of adults, 91.9 per cent of people aged 12 and older and 88.0 per cent of people aged five and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 89.6 per cent of adults, 89.1 per cent of those aged 12 and older and 82.8 per cent of those aged five and older have received two doses; 19.8 per cent of adults and 18.5 per cent of those aged 12-plus have received three doses.

Sadly, there were five new virus-related deaths reported since Dec. 24, bringing that total to 2,419. Of those who died, three lived in the Island Health region, one in the Interior Health region and one in the Northern Health region.

Health authorities reported five new health-care facility outbreaks. Active outbreaks continue at four long-term care facilities, one assisted or independent living facility, one acute care facility and one mental health and substance use facility.

From Dec. 21 to 27, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 15.9 per cent of cases.
From Dec. 14 to 27, they accounted for 57.6 per cent of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Dec. 21 to 27)—Total 14,030

• Not vaccinated: 2,033 (14.5 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 203 (1.4 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 11,794 (84.1 per cent)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Dec. 14 to 27)—Total 132

• Not vaccinated: 76 (57.6 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: zero (0.0 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 56 (42.4 per cent)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 21 to 27)

• Not vaccinated: 318.5

• Partially vaccinated: 82.6

• Fully vaccinated: 257.6

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 14 to 27)

• Not vaccinated: 17.5

• Partially vaccinated: 0.0

• Fully vaccinated: 1.2

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.