Omicron is hitting BC hard as the province saw cases of COVID-19 shoot up above 2000 Thursday With one new death. B.C. is reporting 2,046 new cases of COVID-19, including five epi-linked cases, for a total of 233,217 cases in the province. There are currently 8,739 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 221,872 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 195 individuals are currently in hospital and 75 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

VICTORIA – Omicron is hitting BC hard as the province saw cases of COVID-19 shoot up above 2000 Thursday With one new death.

As of Thursday, Dec. 23, 87.7% (4,372,428) of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.7% (4,124,437) have received their second dose.

In addition, 91.8% (4,255,333) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 89% (4,124,353) received their second dose and 17% (785,505) have received a third dose.

Also, 92.2% (3,986,940) of all eligible adults in B.C. have received their first dose, 89.5% (3,869,327) received their second dose and 18% (784,714) have received a third dose.

B.C. is reporting 2,046 new cases of COVID-19, including five epi-linked cases, for a total of 233,217 cases in the province.

There are currently 8,739 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 221,872 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 195 individuals are currently in hospital and 75 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

The new/active cases include:

* 741 new cases in Fraser Health
* Total active cases: 2,825

* 880 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health
* Total active cases: 3,729

* 123 new cases in Interior Health
* Total active cases: 699

* 53 new cases in Northern Health
* Total active cases: 217

* 248 new cases in Island Health
* Total active cases: 1,267

* one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada
* Total active cases: two

In the last 24 hours, one new death (Island Health) has been reported, for an overall total of 2,410.

There have been 975 cases of the Omicron variant of concern confirmed in B.C.:

* Fraser Health: 221

* Vancouver Coastal Health: 496

* Interior Health: 19

* Northern Health: four

* Island Health: 235

There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks. There is one active outbreak in:

* long-term care:
* none

* acute care:
* Lions Gate Hospital (Vancouver Coastal Health)

* assisted or independent living:
* none

From Dec. 15-21, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 24.8% of cases and from Dec. 8-21 they accounted for 68.6% of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Dec. 15-21) - Total 6,879

* Not vaccinated: 1,620 (23.5%)

* Partially vaccinated: 86 (1.3%)

* Fully vaccinated: 5,173 (75.2%)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Dec. 8-21) - Total 175

* Not vaccinated: 116 (66.3%)

* Partially vaccinated: 4 (2.3%)

* Fully vaccinated: 55 (31.4%)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 15-21)

* Not vaccinated: 238.2

* Partially vaccinated: 41.8

* Fully vaccinated: 113.5

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Dec. 8-21)

* Not vaccinated: 27

* Partially vaccinated: 3.1

* Fully vaccinated: 1.2

Since December 2020, the Province has administered 9,248,433 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines.