VICTORIA, B.C. – While it was announced on Wednesday that a vaccine will be coming next week to B.C., Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says, in the meantime, we must continue to keep safety in mind.
“We are not yet through this storm. We still have a long way to go before we can have the confidence our communities are all safe… There will be a time when we can take our masks off, when we can hug our friends, when we can be together again. We will get there. But the storm is not over.”
On Wednesday, Premier John Horgan announced the Province would begin to receive its first 4,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, which is to be distributed in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health Regions.
The plan is to immunize 400,000 British Columbians by the end of March.
According to Henry, 723 new cases were confirmed across B.C., Thursday, bringing the total to 40,060.
Active cases across the province stand at 9,524 and 28,948 have since recovered.
Hospitalizations in B.C. are at 346, with 83 of those in ICU.
The province’s death count now sits at 587.
11,947 people are currently under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.
