B.C. slowed the rate of COVID-19 transmission, but the numbers are still high and deaths are still mounting, health officials say.

There have been 428 new cases of COVID-19, including two epi-linked cases, for a total of 54,629 cases in B.C., Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health said in a joint statement released Jan. 5.

There are 6,472 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 367 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 77 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. There have also been eight more COVID-19 related deaths, raising the total since the start of the pandemic to 954.

"To date, 28,209 people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in British Columbia. Our focus is to ensure we safely deliver the vaccines as quickly as possible to communities across the province, using all available supply,” Henry and Dix said.

While the focus is on first-priority populations in the next three months, as new vaccines are approved and additional supply becomes available, Dix and Henry say they will incorporate the additional doses into distribution to enable as many people as possible to be immunized as soon as they can.

"We were able to slow the increase of new cases in mid-December and we want to continue that trend, but the number of new cases and deaths across the province remains high,” Henry and Dix said.

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