“Today, we are reporting three periods: from April 16 to 17, we had 1,027 new cases, from April 17 to 18 we had 933 new cases and in the last 24 hours, we had a further 1,000 new cases.

“This results in 2,960 new cases, for a total of 120,040 cases in British Columbia.

“There are 9,353 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 14,711 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 108,919 people who tested positive have recovered.

“Of the active cases, 441 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 138 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

“Since we last reported, we have had 696 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,845 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 108 in the Island Health region, 211 in the Interior Health region, 100 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

“There are currently 5,872 cases of COVID-19 that are confirmed variants of concern in our province. Of the total cases, 191 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 3,908 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 71 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 1,893 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant.

“There have been eight new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,538 deaths in British Columbia.

“Sadly we have had the first death of a child due to COVID-19 in B.C. The child was under the age of two, resided in the Fraser Health Authority and was receiving specialized care at BC Children’s Hospital. Our condolences are with the family, friends, caregivers and communities of this child and with all the people who have passed away due to COVID-19.