As COVID-19 cases tick upward in the province, BC’s Health Minister stated the majority of new diagnoses are from those who are either not vaccinated or just partiality protected.
In an interview with Vista Radio, Adrian Dix said between June 15th and July 15th, only 4% of new infections involved those who were fully immunized.
“In that period as well, one person passed away who had been fully vaccinated from COVID-19, and for that person, it was pretty tragic for them but that person was in their 90’s and was most likely dealing with other medical conditions.”
“Only 4% of our new cases occurred from those who are fully vaccinated, which equates to about one in every 25 cases. Most people are fully vaccinated so that is a pretty good record.”
BC looks to be at the start of a Delta-driven fourth wave of COVID-19.
The variant of concern is making up most new infections around the world including our province.
Dix explained which region is being impacted the most.
“In the Interior Health Authority and in Kelowna at this time, the Delta variant is quite present and quite transmissible amongst the unvaccinated in those regions. With COVID-19 as present as it is people are vulnerable and we are seeing very high case counts because of it.”
When asked if the government plans to scale back on its reopening plan if cases continue to rise, Dix mentioned the province-wide restrictions we saw during the first 18 months of the pandemic aren’t likely to come back.
“What you are going to see now is precise action. If there are problems in a business that place will have to close for a length of time. If there are problems within the community there may be action taken – so you are going to see a change in the approach to what was taking place previously, which is where we used province-wide measures. Now, we are going to use more precise measures in certain areas.”
Interior Health has the highest amount of active COVID cases in BC at 945, while Northern Health is at the lower end of the spectrum with just 52 current infections.
Currently, there are 1,745 active cases BC-wide.