All five health authorities in B.C. have recorded cases of the Omicron variant of concern.

In total, 44 people in B.C. have contracted this strain of COVID-19, which is considered far more contagious than the dominant Delta variant.

The highest number is in Fraser Health (24), followed by 11 in Vancouver Coastal Health, five in Island Health, three in Interior Health, and one in Northern Health.

Over the past 24 hours, there were no new deaths in B.C. from COVID-19. Since March 2020, 2,386 British Columbians have succumbed to complications from the disease.

B.C. has 519 new cases of COVID-19 since the province's last report on December 13. This brings the number of active cases to 3,171 across the province.

Of those, 191 people are in hospital and 81 of the hospitalized are in intensive care.

The new/active cases include:

• 110 new cases in Fraser Health
  • Total active cases: 872
• 106 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health
  • Total active cases: 669
• 145 new cases in Interior Health
  • Total active cases: 612
• 34 new cases in Northern Health
  • Total active cases: 213
• 123 new cases in Island Health
  • Total active cases: 804
• one new case of a person who resides outside of Canada
  • Total active cases: one