British Columbia's seven-day average for COVID-19 cases crept upward once again after the government announced 555 new infections and 11 related deaths on Wednesday.
The latest numbers, released in a written statement from the Ministry of Health, pushed the seven-day average to 520 per day, up from 475 on the weekend.
The average began trending downward towards the end of October, when it peaked at 641 cases per day.
B.C.'s active case count inched up slightly to 4,321 on Tuesday, while the number of infectious COVID-19 patients in hospital fell to 404 – a drop of 22 from Monday.
The number of patients in critical care, who are included in the hospitalization total, also fell to 117 from 124.
Five of the new fatalities were recorded in the Fraser Health region, three were in Island Health, two were in Vancouver Coastal Health and one was in Interior Health.
90.5 per cent of eligible B.C. residents age 12 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 86.4 per cent have received two.
- with files from CTV -