B.C. reported skyrocketing COVID-19 cases over the Christmas period, including 737 new cases in the Island Health region.
On Monday, the province reported 6,288 new cases over a three-day period.
The government did not release data on active cases, deaths, hospitalizations or vaccination figures due to the statutory holiday. It will resume reporting those figures on Wednesday, when a media briefing is expected.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s COVID-19 dashboard will be updated Wednesday.
The surge in case counts is being driven by the more contagious Omicron variant. B.C. announced last week that its testing system had reached its capacity of 20,000 cases per day and triage is underway.
Rapid tests are now being used to supplement PCR tests based on risk, and those rapid-test results are not included in daily case totals.
People who are younger and don’t have underlying risk factors, particularly if they are fully vaccinated, will most likely receive a rapid test, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said last week.
