Sixteen people in the Island Health region were in intensive care with COVID-19 on Monday, according to the B.C. Center for Disease Control.
The region saw 204 new cases reported over the weekend, bringing the number of active cases to 661.
They were among 1,692 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend across the province.
On Monday, 307 people were in hospital with COVID-19 in B.C. — 27 in Island Health — and just over half were in intensive care units.
From Sept. 3 to 16, people who were not vaccinated or only partially so accounted for 85 per cent of hospitalizations, the province reported.
Of 401 hospitalized cases in that time period, 319 were not vaccinated, 22 were only partially vaccinated and 60 were fully vaccinated.
After factoring for age, people who are not vaccinated are 32 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who are fully vaccinated, said the Health Ministry.
Of the eligible population age 12 and older, 79.2 per cent have been fully vaccinated. Public health officials and epidemiologists say a full vaccination rate of more than 90 per cent is needed to combat the highly infectious Delta variant.
The province announced 11 new COVID-19 deaths over the weekend, none of which were in Island Health. Six were in Fraser Health.
Twenty-one active outbreaks in B.C. were reported on Monday, not including an outbreak declared by Island Health Sunday at Victoria Chinatown Care Centre Long-Term Care, where two people have tested positive. Thirty of 31 residents are vaccinated and all staff are vaccinated or in the process of being fully vaccinated.
An outbreak at Sunset Lodge long-term care home on the Esquimalt and Victoria border was declared over on Friday after 15 staff and 21 residents, six of whom died, tested positive for the virus.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
