B.C. records 165 cases of COVID-19 as officials encourage more 2nd doses of vaccine

Health officials in British Columbia say it's encouraging to see a steady increase in the number of people who are protected with a COVID-19 vaccine as cases decline.

However, of the nearly 3.7 million doses of vaccine that have been administered, less than 346,000 are second doses.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say the province has recorded 165 new infections and no additional deaths as part of its exit out of the pandemic.

There are currently 2,051 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., and of the 203 people in hospital, 57 are in intensive care.

People who received a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have the option of getting the same vaccine for the second shot or an mRNA vaccine such as the one made by Pfizer-BioNTech.

Dr. Henry and Dix say there's no wrong choice to make and there are plenty of vaccines at pharmacies and mass clinics.