Seven more COVID patients are en route to hospitals on the Island and Lower Mainland from the northern health region, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Monday, as the province reported almost 2,000 new COVID cases over the weekend.
Last week, the ministry said 25 ICU patients had been transferred from Northern Health to Island Health, Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health since Sept. 6. Now the number is 32, which includes 26 COVID patients, he said.
“None of them — none, zero — are fully vaccinated,” Dix told reporters Monday.
The ministry was unable to say how many have been transferred to Island Health hospitals.
Unvaccinated COVID cases are presenting profound challenges for the health-care system, Dix said.
“People involved are going to get the absolute best care in the world, as they should, and health authorities in the south are supporting health authorities in the north, as they should, as we do as a province … but I think it’s particularly important to understand the need to be vaccinated now,” he said.
Eighty-one per cent of people eligible for COVID vaccines in the province are fully immunized.
A lower-dose vaccine is expected to be approved for children age five to 11 by the end of the year.
The province reported on Monday that over the preceding three-day period, there were 1,986 new cases of COVID-19, down from the same three-day period last weekend, when 2,239 new cases of COVID-19 were reported.
Of 5,986 active cases in B.C., 326 individuals are in hospital, including 142 in intensive care.
“Ninety-one per cent of those in critical care today due to COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated,” Dix said.
In Island Health, 218 new COVID cases were reported Monday, for a total of 640 active cases. That’s down slightly from last weekend, when 230 new cases were reported over the weekend, for a total of 657 cases on the Island.
In Northern Health, where cases continue to spike and ICU patients are overwhelming hospitals, there were 346 new cases over the weekend for a total of 965 active cases.
From Sept. 17 to 30, unvaccinated cases accounted for 81 per cent of COVID hospitalizations in the province.
Ten new deaths were reported in B.C. Monday, none of which were in the Island Health region.
There were two new health-care facility outbreaks reported Monday for a total of 20, including an ongoing outbreak at Victoria Chinatown Care Centre in Island Health.
