The province-wide ban on events and gatherings will continue into the new year.
Provincial Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry formally extended the restrictions until midnight of January 8, as B.C reported 2,020 new cases of COVID-19 in a three-day span.
She also revealed B.C. will receive its first doses of the Pfizer vaccine next week.
“It has to be kept at – 80 degrees,” said Doctor Henry, “There are limited places where we have the equipment and ability to do that, so we will be receiving small amounts to start with and we will be focusing on those we believe are most at risk.”
However, she points out the small number of vaccines available will not be enough to make a dent in community transmission right away.
“The light of the end of the tunnel, it’s there, but we need to do our piece in order to keep the rates low in order to prevent people from dying.”
35 people passed away from the virus across the province, for a total of 527 fatalities.
Of the new cases, 106 were found to be in Northern Health.
The health authority has now reported a total of 1,084 infections.
Across B.C., 9,380 cases are active and 349 people are in hospital and 77 people are in critical care.
There have been a total of 38,152 infections in the province since the onset of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, there are 10,747 people isolating as a result of an identified exposure and the recovery rate is 71.5 percent.
There have been six new outbreaks in the healthcare system and there are 65 ongoing.
Cases by day:
Fri – Sat: 647
Sat – Sun: 726
Sun – Mon:Â 647
New cases by region:
North – 106
Interior – 203
Vancouver – 304
Fraser – 1362
Island – 45