Those who are pregnant in British Columbia have now been designated a priority population to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says data shows pregnant people experience severe illness from COVID-19 at a rate similar to those who are in their 50s. She says prioritizing people who are pregnant and 16 years and older for vaccination will help protect them, their babies and the wider community. B.C. has recorded 697 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 132,353, along with one new death. There are 7,161 active COVID-19 cases, with 486 people hospitalized. More

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government's advice that people should get vaccinated as soon as it's their turn has not changed. He made the comment after a federal panel said vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are ``preferred.'' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the only way Canada brings the pandemic to a close is for everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Amid a flurry of fear and frustration over new advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, Trudeau says he's glad he was given the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Trudeau also announced that one-milli

A man has suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in a brazen daylight shooting outside a busy shopping mall in Langley, B.C.A statement from the RCMP says it happened Monday just after 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Willowbrook Shopping Centre, 45 kilometres east of Vancouver.Investigators say the shooting does not appear random and few other details have been released.It was the fourth shooting in Metro Vancouver in as many days.There was an attack Sunday in Burnaby on a woman who is expected to survive, the fatal shooting Saturday of a 29-year-old corrections officer in the parking

The expected arrival of more than one million COVID-19 vaccine doses this month has British Columbia health officials forecasting shorter waits between first and second doses for more people. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the increasing vaccine shipments could see the estimated 16-week interval between the first and second shots reduced. But Dr. Henry says it's still too early to concretely estimate the possible difference in wait times other than saying all people in B.C. could get their first vaccines before Canada Day. She says B.C. expects to receive 1.1 million doses of

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be limited to people over the age of 30 who don't want to wait for Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. The advice is almost identical to that issued for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine last month and comes as both are suspected of causing a new and very rare blood clotting syndrome. In Canada there have been seven known cases of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT, one of them fatal. As of April 24, 1.7 million people in Canada have been given at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. No

A provincial corrections officer has been identified as the victim of a fatal shooting in Delta, B.C.The victim has been identified as Bikramdeep Randhawa, 29, of Surrey, B.C.Delta Police say in a news release they are considering the daylight shooting outside the Scottsdale Centre mall Saturday to be targeted based on behaviour by the suspects, but the motive is not known.They say investigators are looking at all angles, including that it was a case of mistaken identity, that it related to the man's personal life or that it was linked to his occupation.Police say they are in contact with oth

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued a joint statement regarding updates on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia. "Today, we are reporting 740 new cases, for a total of 129,482 cases in British Columbia."There are 7,886 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 11,727 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. "Of the active cases, 511 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 174 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-

To help keep communities safe and protect British Columbia's health-care system from COVID-19, the Province has authorized site-specific road checks on travel corridors between regions to help enforce the non-essential travel restrictions that were announced on April 23, 2021.On the advice of B.C.'s provincial health officer (PHO), Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, issued an Emergency Program Act order to prohibit non-essential travel between three regional zones in the province. The regional zones are:1. Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley (Fraser Health and Coasta

A former cabinet minister denies telling a gaming investigator that members of the B.C. Liberal government knew about illegal activities at casinos and were doing little to prevent the crimes. Kash Heed told a public inquiry into money laundering that he recalls a lunch in Victoria in 2009 with former gaming investigator Fred Pinnock, but his recollection of the meeting differs from Pinnock's. Pinnock testified last fall that he met with Heed in November 2009 shortly after he was appointed solicitor general to raise concerns about large amounts of suspicious cash that were likely linked to org