Northern Health region adds 159 cases and three deaths Thursday, 306 unvaccinated healthcare workers in Northern Health

VICTORIA, B.C. – The Northern Health region added 159 cases on Thursday, moving the active case count to 616.

There are 61 people in hospital, 18 of whom are in critical care.

There were three COVID-19 deaths reported on Thursday, moving the regional total to 224.

Out of 15,800 cases in the region, 14,887 have since recovered.

Another 1,760 vaccine doses were given Thursday, moving the total dose count to 387,313. Of those, 180,062 are second doses and 6,448 are other doses.

British Columbia added 596 cases on Thursday, moving the active case count to 4,451.

There are 438 people in hospital, 130 of whom are in critical care.

Eight COVID-19 deaths were recorded across the province Thursday, moving the total to 2,200.

Of the 207,716 cases in B.C., 200,749 have since recovered.

The province added 17,648 vaccine doses, raising the total dose count to 8,295,846. Of those, 3,970,889 are second doses and 143,078 are other doses.

As of Thursday, 90.1 per cent of eligible residents over 12 have a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 85.6 per cent have received both doses of a Health Canada approved vaccine.

Health Minister Adrian Dix broke down the numbers of unvaccinated healthcare workers by health authority at the COVID-19 briefing on Thursday.

Of the 3,091 workers still not vaccinated, Dix says 306 are in the Northern Health region. The highest number of unvaccinated healthcare workers is in the Interior region, where 959 workers have not gotten their shots. Just 33 healthcare workers in the Vancouver Coastal region are unvaccinated.

Taking the whole province into account, Dix says around two per cent of healthcare workers are not vaccinated.