Half of valley cases young

Canada Day surge reflected in number of positives under 40

Young people make up a greater share of COVID-19 patients in the B.C. Interior than in the province as a whole.

More than 47 per cent of those who’ve caught COVID-19 across the Okanagan and throughout the wider region served by Interior Health are between the ages of 20 and 40. The comparable figure province-wide is 34 per cent, according to statistics from the BC Centre for Disease Control.

The higher percentage of infected young people across the Interior is due in large part to large parties held in Kelowna around the Canada Day holiday. After spiking later in July, COVID-19 caseloads in the Interior have tapered off significantly.

On Friday, just one of the 53 new COVID-19 cases announced for the province was in the Interior Health region. Numbers have been rising disproportionately fast in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser health regions.

Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry used a metaphor that will be familiar to British Columbians in urging people to continue to practice physical distancing and take other measures to curb the spread of the pandemic.

“As we see new COVID-19 hotspots emerge and new cases creep up in every health authority, we have to keep our firewall strong,” they said in a joint Friday news release.

“Like a wildfire, COVID-19 has the potential to rapidly burn out of control and we need to put out these flareups,” they said.

With the 53 new cases provincewide, 3,934 British Columbians have been infected since the onset of the pandemic earlier this year. The death toll remained unchanged at 195. The median age of those who’ve died has been 85.

Although new COVID-19 cases rose 46 per cent this week compared to last week, hospitalizations for the disease remain far below levels seen a few months ago.

Currently, only 11 people are in hospital, compared to a peak of 140 in early April.

“New hospital admissions and deaths remain low. This may be due to the younger age of recently reported cases,” the B.C. Centre for Disease control says in its most recent COVID19 weekly surveillance report, covering the period of July 31-Aug. 6.

VANCOUVER — More flights have been added to a list alerting passengers who arrived at B.C. airports of potential exposure to COVID-19.

The BC Centre for Disease Control says passengers on a Delta flight on July 29 from Seattle to Vancouver and a flight from San Francisco to Vancouver on Aug. 1 may be at risk.

All travellers from outside Canada must self-isolate for 14 days, which can limit the possible spread of the illness from international flights.

But the centre says passengers on a WestJet flight from Calgary should also self-monitor for symptoms for the next 14 days.

It says a person with COVID-19 was onboard flight 538 from Victoria to Calgary on July 29, affecting rows 5 to 11. The latest advisories come as the province announced 53 more cases on Friday and another outbreak in a longterm care facility.

The Fraser Health authority says one staff member at Derby Manor has tested positive for COVID-19.

B.C. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena sent a letter to her federal counterpart earlier this week asking for help in getting airlines to provide more complete information on passengers to aid contact tracing efforts.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Tuesday that the lack of contact information public health officials get from airlines “would shock you.”

Henry said the airlines collect information for a different reason, which means health officials might get the name of the person or company who booked the ticket rather than the person who was actually on the flight.

She said they’ve told officials at Transport Canada that during the pandemic, public health workers need to be able to contact people quickly.

“Introductions from other provinces, but also from countries into Canada, are one of the things that put us at risk. So, we need to have a system that allows us to identify people rapidly.”

A joint statement from Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says there were no new deaths. The death toll has been unchanged at 195 for a week.

There are a total of 3,934 cases in the province, although 3,353 people who tested positive have recovered.

Eleven people are in hospital and four of those are in intensive care.