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B.C. reports 553 new COVID cases, 1 death as new outbreak declared at Site C

There are 32 active cases at Site C, with more than 100 people in isolation
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FILE – Specimens to be tested for COVID-19 are seen at LifeLabs after being logged upon receipt at the company’s lab, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The province is reporting 553 new COVID-19 cases and one death on Wednesday (Aug. 18).

There are 152 new cases in Fraser Health, 97 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 230 in Interior Health, 36 in Northern Health and 38 in Island Health. One of the new cases is epi-linked.

B.C. recorded one new fatality in Fraser Health for a total of 1,782 deaths since the pandemic began.

There are currently 5,580 active cases in the province. There are 107 people in hospital, 53 of whom are in ICU. The province does not release the vaccination status of the people in hospital each day, with the last accounting of which cases, hospitalizations and deaths involved immunized individuals being for the period of June 24 to July 24.

Northern Health declared an outbreak at Site C on Wednesday, with 41 people confirmed to have been infected with COVID 19. The health authority said there are “several active clusters of COVID-19 activity amongst primarily unvaccinated workers.” There are 32 active cases currently associated with the outbreak but more than 110 close contacts of these people are currently in self-isolation, either at the work site or at home.

Vaccinations among people ages 12 and older in B.C. have reached 82.8 per cent for the first dose and 73.8 per cent for the second.

READ MORE: B.C. university groups petition for masking, vaccination mandate


@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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