Victoria General Hospital (VGH) welcomed Vancouver Island’s first baby of the new year in the early hours of 2026, according to Island Health.
Baby boy Sahit Prata arrived bright and early at 3:48 a.m., weighing three pounds and one ounce, making his birth a special milestone for the Island as the new year got underway.
Sahit arrived just a few hours after BC’s first baby of 2026, a baby boy born at Kelowna General Hospital at 12:18 a.m., shortly after the clock struck midnight.
This marks the second year in a row that Interior Health has welcomed the province’s first baby of the year. In 2025, the first baby was born at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
Elsewhere in the province, Fraser Health welcomed its first baby at 12:53 a.m. at Ridge Meadows Hospital while Northern Health reported a baby girl born at Ksyen Regional Hospital in Terrace at 2:25 a.m.
As families welcomed New Year’s Day babies across the province, Sahit’s arrival at VGH marked Vancouver Island’s first baby of 2026.
