Sixteen people died from COVID-19 over the weekend, B.C. health officials announced Monday after unveiling a new vaccine passport system.
Fourteen of the latest deaths were recorded in the Interior Health region, which has seen an alarming surge in cases over recent weeks fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.
Health officials also announced 1,711 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded between Friday afternoon and Monday afternoon, bringing B.C.'s rolling average to 588 cases per day.
But 2,970 people recovered from the coronavirus over the weekend as well, according to the update from the Ministry of Health. That pushed the province's active caseload to 5,056, down from 6,345 on Friday.
The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital inched up to 133, and the number in intensive care climbed to 80 – a steep jump from 59 as of Friday.
- with files from CTV -