B.C. is reporting 716 new cases of COVID-19 and three further deaths due to the disease.
Of the new cases, 38 are in the Interior Health region, on par with recent days.
The province now has 5,573 active cases, an increase of about 750 active cases since last Wednesday. There are 303 in hospital and 85 of those patients are in critical care.
Another 9,696 people are under active public health monitoring due to exposure to confirmed cases.
Elsewhere in the province, there have been 230 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 383 in Fraser Health, 21 in Vancouver Island Health, 42 in Northern Health and two new cases in people who live outside Canada.
The province also provided an update on variants of concern, reporting an additional 71 cases on Wednesday. B.C. has now seen 1,581 variant cases — most of which have been the U.K. variant (1,397 cases), while others include the South Africa variant (44 cases) and the Brazil variant (140 cases).
In the past 24 hours, the province has reported another 25,126 doses of COVID-19 vaccine given for a total of 582,634 total doses given, including 87,180 second doses.
Vaccine appointment bookings are currently being taken for those age 76 and older and Indigenous people age 55 and older. For more information, go online to immunizebc.com.
Additionally, those deemed clinically extremely vulnerable will begin receiving letters in the mail on Monday, March 29, and those in rural and remote communities, including many around Kamloops, have had community vaccine clinics scheduled.
To date, 86,857 of B.C.'s total 93,969 cases have recovered while 1,441 have died.
