Today marks the one year anniversary of the first death from COVID-19 recorded in B.C.

“Today, we pause and remember everyone who has died from this virus and offer our condolences to those who have lost their loved ones,” states a joint statement issued today, March 9, by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

“Through the loss and uncertainty that has come with this pandemic, we have seen incredible resilience, as people throughout our province have adapted to the challenges COVID-19 has brought."

There have been two more deaths in the past 24 hours in B.C., bringing the total to 1,393 in the past year.

Of the 550 new cases, 36 were in the Interior Health region, 319 were in Fraser Health, 133 in Vancouver Coastal, seven on Vancouver Island and 52 in the Northern Health region.

There are 4,869 active cases in B.C. with 249 people in hospital, 68 of whom are in intensive care. There are 8,971 people under active public health monitoring.

There were 182 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern for a total of 576 such cases with 530 being the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 33 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 13 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant. There are 113 active cases.

To date, 343,381 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, 86,938 of which are second doses.

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