B.C.'s latest COVID-19 pandemic update includes nine more deaths attributed to the disease, as well as thousands more cases as the province's Omicron variant wave continues.
The Ministry of Health said Friday that 3,144 new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed through PCR testing or epidemiologically linked to known cases in the last 24 hours.
526 are in Interior Health.
Because B.C.'s testing system is currently overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus, the true number of new infections is likely higher.
The number of people in hospital with the coronavirus rose again on Friday. There are now 349 infectious patients in hospital with the disease in B.C.
Ninety-three of them are in intensive care units.
Five of the deaths reported Friday occurred in the Fraser Health region, while Vancouver Coastal Health and Island Health saw two each. There have been 2,439 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in B.C. since the pandemic began.