B.C. reports 634 new COVID-19 cases and 4 deaths; Over 300,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine administered so far

British Columbia is reporting 634 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 83,107 cases since the pandemic began in the province.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement there have also been four new fatalities, pushing the death toll from the virus to 1,380 in BC.

There are four new cases that are variants of concern, bringing the total to 250, of which 222 are the strain first found in the United Kingdom and 28 are the variant first detected in South Africa.

Dr. Henry and Dix say this has been a week of progress, as the province gets ready to begin age-based immunizations and integrate the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine into its program.

They say the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be another tool in its immunization program that will help accelerate protection of people in BC.

People over 90 and Indigenous people over 65 will be able to start booking their vaccine appointments on Monday, and anyone outside of these groups is asked to wait to call until their registration window begins.