The province is reporting eight deaths from COVID-19 today and 761 new cases, with only Fraser Health seeing more cases today than Interior Health.

There were 96 cases in the Interior as well as one death. There were also 484 cases in Fraser Health, 94 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 64 in Northern Health and 23 in Island Health.

Province-wide, there are now 6,349 active cases with 372 people in hospital and 74 people in intensive care. In Interior Health, there are 33 hospitalizations today.

Meanwhile, 41,064 people in B.C. have now received a vaccination dose against COVID-19.

Provincial Health Office Dr. Bonnie Henry says the province is changing how cases are reported, in that they will be counted from midnight-to-midnight going forward instead of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Regardless, Henry says numbers in recent days show an “uptick” in cases compared to the holidays.

She says that could lead to changes in daily case reporting for today and tomorrow when numbers are reconciled, meaning the 761 cases reported today is subject to change.

Henry says the change will reduce the chances of errors in data.

“Early on in this pandemic when the numbers were smaller, we were able to do that fairly efficiently,” Henry says. “But now it means epidemiologists having to begin work at 5 a.m. to try and reconcile all the data… It makes sense for us to do it on a 24-hour day.”

Henry also extended the current orders on social gatherings, sports, events, and non-essential travel to midnight on Feb. 5.

More to come.