COVID-19: B.C. reports 789 new cases, 3 deaths as Omicron count jumps to 302

British Columbia’s December COVID-19 surge continued Friday, with the province reporting another 789 cases, along with three more deaths.

The update lifted B.C.’s seven-day moving average for new cases to 539, the highest it’s been since Nov. 1, and left the province with 4,313 active cases.

The number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant more than doubled overnight to 302, up from 135 on Thursday.

Earlier Friday, the province implemented sweeping new restrictions in a bid to control surging case numbers.

The Lower Mainland continued to drive transmission, with 286 new cases in the highly-vaccinated Vancouver Coastal Health region, and 186 in the Fraser Health region.

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There were 131 new cases in the Interior Health region, 147 in the Island Health region and 39 in the Northern Health region.

There were 191 active cases in hospital, including 74 COVID-19 patients in critical or intensive care.

More than 4.3 million British Columbians, 86.9 per cent of those eligible and 84.1 per cent of B.C.’s population, have had one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Of them, more than 4.1 million people, 82.5 per cent of those eligible and 79.9 per cent of B.C.’s population have had two doses.

A further 687,413 people, just over 13 per cent of B.C.’s population, have had a booster dose.

The province says people who were not fully vaccinated made up 42.8 per cent of cases over the past week and 71.6 per cent of hospitalizaions over the past two weeks.

Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported a total of 225,785 cases, and 2,399 people with COVID-19 have died.