British Columbia is is reporting 564 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths over the last 24 hours.

There were 36 new cases in Interior Health, with 279 new cases in Fraser Health, 168 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 46 in Northern Health, and 35 on Vancouver Island.

Active cases are at 4,743 across the province – up by 89 from yesterday – with 248 people in hospital and 63 of those cases are in intensive care. Another 8,659 people are being actively monitored due to direct exposure to someone with COVID-19.

When it comes to COVID-19 variants of concern, Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry says there were another 46 cases, taking the total to 246 cases, 16 of which are active. Of the total, there have been 238 in the Lower Mainland, with just two in Interior Health, with the other six on Vancouver Island.

There are now 218 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and 28 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant.

Dr. Henry also noted there have been 298,851 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine administered to this point, including 86,746 second doses. She says the newly approved AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered to first responders and other essential workers, working parallel to the age-based rollout of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

“The AstraZeneca will be the one that we will focus on because its fridge stable, which means we can be much more agile in how we’re able to get it to people’s workplaces and things like that. All of these vaccines are amazing, great vaccines. They’re safe and they’re effective.”

Henry expects the first shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine to reach the province by next week, and a detailed plan for how it will be prioritized will be shared in the days ahead.

“It is an added bonus to us that we now have these vaccines earlier but I also recognize that first responders and essential workers is a very broad group of people,” Henry said. “As we have done with our immunization so far, we will prioritize our delivery of these vaccines accordingly.”

Henry also noted that the province will be using the point-of-care rapid testing as another tool to support contact tracing and outbreak response efforts, particularly in rural and remote communities and at some worksites and community living locations.

“Private worksites may choose to adopt point-of-care testing. These locations must be accredited and meet all quality assurance requirements, and must immediately report all positive test results to public health and regional health authorities for follow-up,” she said. “For any workplace considering using these tests, it is important to remember these tests do not replace any of the public health orders, protective measures or COVID-19 safety plans required for all B.C. workplaces.

A total of 76,289 people are considered to have recovered from COVID-19, about 93 per cent of the total 82,473 cases in British Columbia.