Public health officials in British Columbia are reporting 1,428 new COVID-19 cases over the past three days, for a total of 77,263 since the pandemic began in the province.There have also been eight more deaths, bringing the number of fatalities linked to the new coronavirus to 1,335 in B.C. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement that 218,726 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, of which 55,057 are second doses.Henry and Dix also reported two new health-care facility outbreaks at Vancouver General Hospital and Kelowna Gen

A group of people caught gambling at a local business in Surrey, B.C., face fines for not following COVID-19 regulations. RCMP say they saw several people leave through the back of a business as officers knocked on the front door late Thursday during a compliance check on the business. Police say in a statement that officers saw people without masks playing cards inside the business, which was closed to the public at that time. Officers handed out tickets to 14 people, totalling just over $5000 in fines. Spokeswoman Sgt. Elenore Sturko called the business a ``full house'' of non-compliant peo

A mild earthquake occurred early this morning in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Vancouver Island. The US Geological Survey says the quake measured 4.5 and occurred 10 kilometres below the earth's crust, roughly 250 kilometres southwest of Tofino. Officials say there are no reports of damage or injury and none would be expected. The shaker occurred near the eastern edge of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the Juan de Fuca plate is sliding under the North America plate, causing as many as one-thousand small temblors every year. And it's raising the potential for a much larger quake as the tw

A man has died while riding his all-terrain vehicle in British Columbia's Fraser Valley. Kent Harrison Search and Rescue says in a social media post that its members responded late Saturday to reports about the missing 21 year old. He had been seen several hours earlier but had not returned from a trip along a forest service road on the east side of Harrison Lake, about 160 kilometres east of Vancouver. Sixteen searchers scoured roughly 30 kilometres of logging roads through the night and rescue efforts resumed Sunday, with assistance from neighbouring Mission Search and Rescue. The man was f

Five patients and two staff members in one unit at Vancouver General Hospital have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting health officials to declare an outbreak in that section of the hospital. Vancouver Coastal Health says inpatient unit T10C in the hospital's Jim Pattison Pavilion is now closed to new admissions and transfers. Visits to the unit, on the tenth floor of the hospital's highrise tower, have been suspended except for end-of-life compassionate visits. The health authority says strict infection prevention and control protocols have been implemented. Those include enhanced cleani

Just three hotels in Vancouver have been authorized so far to accept quarantine visitors flying in from outside Canada. The three-night forced stay at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, the Radisson Vancouver Airport or the Westin Wall Centre, Vancouver Airport will cost two thousand dollars. For that, you'll get the room, food, security, transportation and COVID-19 infection prevention and control. The new federal quarantine measures for travels start today and limit air travel arrivals from outside Canada to just four cities. Flights from outside Canada will be arriving in Vancouver, Calgary,

The faster-spreading COVID-19 variant first discovered in the United Kingdom has made its way into some British Columbia schools.A statement from the Fraser Health authority says it is working closely to manage exposures at six schools in the Surrey and Delta school districts.Five of the schools are in Surrey: Woodward Hill, James Ardiel and A. H. P Matthew elementaries, and Kwantlen Park and Tamanawis high schools, along with Hellings Elementary School in Delta.The authority says only those staff and students who have been identified as close contacts need to be tested and they have been con

British Columbia is recording 508 new COVID-19 cases. Health officials also announced six new deaths at a news conference today. The figures mean a total of 75,835 COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in BC since the pandemic began. British Columbia's death toll sits at 1,327. British Columbia has hit a one-day record for vaccinations as new preliminary data from residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers shows the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine reduces the risk of the virus within two to three weeks. B.C. used 12,250 vaccine doses yesterday, bringing the province's total

The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control says new preliminary data shows that a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine reduces the risk of the virus by 80 per cent within two to three weeks of receiving the shot. The agency says in a statement that research led by Dr. Danuta Skowronski, the head of its influenza and emerging respiratory pathogens team, came to the conclusion after analyzing COVID-19 cases in long-term care homes. Researchers studied cases between December 2020 and February 2021, seeing a drop in cases starting at about 14 days after vaccination as well as a reduction in hos