Kelowna recording 50 cases every day

Fifty people are testing positive every day for COVID-19 in the greater Kelowna area.

Transmission of COVID-19 in the Central Okanagan accelerated last week compared to the week before.

A total of 349 new cases were confirmed in Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, and Peachland between Dec. 6 and 12.

That was up from the 314 new cases reported the week previously, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control says.

New case counts for other areas of the Okanagan: 54 in the South Okanagan; 36 in Vernon; 34 in Penticton; and seven in Summerland.

For much of the pandemic’s duration this year, the province would not release community-specific information on positive cases of COVID-19. Since numbers were relatively small, the province said, it might be possible to identify who had the disease in any given community.

Now, however, with cases provincewide at more than 44,000, the province says there is no risk of individuals being identified with the release of more detailed information on local infection rates. Weekly infection numbers are provided every Wednesday.

Transmission rates in the Central Okanagan are now at the highest level on the scale used by the BC CDC to track the spread of infections. In the greater Kelowna area, 50 people everyday are testing positive for the disease, the BC CDC says.

VACCINE NOT STOPPING TRANSMISSION

Even as COVID-19 vaccinations are underway in B.C., 21 more people died of the disease between Wednesday and Thursday.

A total of 673 new cases, 66 of them in the region served by Interior Health, were announced by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Most of the deaths reported Thursday had been residents of longterm care homes in the Lower Mainland. Across B.C., 713 people have now died of COVID-19.

Vaccinations have so far taken place only in the Lower Mainland but that will change next week.

“We do expect and are planning for immunization clinics in every health region across the province starting early next week,” Henry said.

Currently, 358 people are being treated in hospitals across B.C. for COVID-19, with 93 of the patients in intensive care.