B.C. health officials are reporting another 414 new cases of COVID-19 and 16 deaths.

There were another 63 new cases and no new deaths in Interior Health. The provincial death toll is up to 1,234 people.

Active cases provincewide are are 4,426, a decrease of 116 from yesterday’s update. There are currently 278 people in hospital with COVID-19, down by 16, of whom 80 are in intensive care, a decrease of two.

In Kamloops, there were five new cases at Royal Inland Hospital, one more at the Westsyde Care Residences, and zero cases at the Brocklehurst Gemstone Care Centre. There was also one more case – a student – at Sa-Hali Secondary.

Fraser Health reported 182 new cases today, with 108 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 34 in Northern Health, and 26 on Vancouver Island. There was also one new case in a person who lives outside of Canada.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry says testing has confirmed the original person at Garibaldi High school did have the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant of COVID-19, but this person has since recovered and is no longer an exposure risk.

“Eighty-one students and eight educators were also tested and all are negative. Rapid testing of the school cohort indicated one positive case, which was later confirmed as a false positive through the subsequent, more reliable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test,” Henry said.

To date, there have been 142,146 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine administered in B.C., 6,417 of which are second doses.

There are now 61,643 people who are considered to have recovered from COVID-19, about 89 per cent of the total 68,780 cases in British Columbia.