No new deaths, five new cases

There are 70 new COVID-19 cases in Saline County, and one new death. The state's death toll attributed to the virus is up to 21,812. Right now, the LCGHD is working with Lake County EMA, Lake Health and local fire departments to administer the vaccine to residents. It's been nine days since Pennsylvania reached 800,000.

The province's rolling seven-day average also dropped to 437 per day - the lowest it's been since November 7. Coming on 16,396 tests per day over the last week, that's good for a 33.1% average positivity rate.

Currently, 294 individuals are hospitalized with the virus, 82 of whom are in intensive care.

Fifteen people are now in hospital for treatment of COVID-19 in the Island Health region, and another five are receiving critical care. When the hospitalization surge was on the upswing, the state was around that number on November 21, when there were 3,294 patients hospitalized and growing. Countywide, there are now 1,271 individuals hospitalized, with 385 of these patients in an ICU.

The Department of Health confirmed that there have now been 1 million vaccines distributed to patients in Pennsylvania.

The LCGHD said vaccines coming into the county remain low, with many vaccine providers only receiving 100- 200 doses each week.

Since the pandemic began, 20 people have died of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island, while 1,423 people have recovered.

With everyone in B.C. following the restrictions we have in place and always using our layers of protection, we are not only starting to slow the spread in B.C., but are also better positioned to deal with the uncertainties of the new variants of concern. The region's total case count increased to 52,073.

Of the 29 most recent deaths, all but nine had reported underlying conditions.