COVID-19 related deaths returned Wednesday as eight more people died from the virus while cases remain low with over 200. There are 329 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 51 are in intensive care.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

VICTORIA – COVID-19 related deaths returned Wednesday as eight more people died from the virus while cases remain low with over 200.

As of Wednesday, March 16, 90.7% (4,523,491) of eligible people five and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 86.8% (4,328,146) have received their second dose.

In addition, 93.4% (4,328,194) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 90.9% (4,214,053) received their second dose and 56.8% (2,630,945) have received a third dose.

Also, 93.7% (4,053,440) of all eligible adults in B.C. have received their first dose, 91.3% (3,950,298) received their second dose and 58.6% (2,535,038) have received a third dose.

B.C. is reporting 235 new cases of COVID-19, including seven epi-linked cases, for a total of 353,139 cases in the province.

Note: Although 235 new cases are being reported, the total number of cases have only increased by 174 from Tuesday, March 15. This has resulted in no new cases reported in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health and a decrease in the overall total number of cases in these health authorities compared to yesterday. This is due to data reconciliation from the preliminary numbers reported yesterday.

The new cases include:

* Fraser Health: N/A

* Vancouver Coastal Health: N/A

* Interior Health: 182

* Northern Health: 23

* Island Health: 30

* People who reside outside of Canada: zero

There are 329 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 51 are in intensive care.

In the past 24 hours, eight new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,953.

Note: One reported death has been removed from the total due to a data correction.

The new deaths include:

* Fraser Health: two

* Vancouver Coastal Health: four

* Northern Health: one

* Island Health: one

There has been one new health-care facility outbreak at Surrey Memorial Hospital (Fraser Health), for a total of nine facilities with ongoing outbreaks, including:

* long-term care:
* Ponderosa, Hillside Village (Interior Health)

* Sidney Care Home, Berwick House Gordon Head, The Heights at Mt. View, Greenwoods, Luther Court and Yucalta Lodge (Island Health)

* acute care:
* Surrey Memorial Hospital (Fraser Health)

* assisted or independent living:
* none

Note: Due to a continued delay in BC Centre for Disease Control data, the update on cases and hospitalizations by vaccination status is unavailable today.

Since December 2020, the Province has administered 11,424,276 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccines.