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Mar 5, 2021 4:09 AM -
BC is reporting 564 new cases of COVID-19 and four additional deaths.
A total of 1,376 people have now died in the province due to the pandemic.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is also reporting 46 new cases of COVID variants of concern, raising the total to 246.
The bulk of the cases, 218 are the variant first seen in the UK and the remaining 28 cases are the South Africa variant.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says BC will deploy the newly-approved AstraZeneca vaccine to first responders and other essential workers.
Dr. Henry says doing so will move up the vaccination timeline for essential workers in a program that will run parallel to the current age-based vaccination system.
She says that since essential workers are such a large group, the province is working on protocols on who will be vaccinated first.
Dr. Henry says that plan is expected to be outlined on March 18th.
