Spread slowing in Okanagan
Kelowna averaging about 20 cases daily
The average number of new infections of COVID-19 in greater Kelowna rose slightly last week, to 20 from 16 each day.
Reports of new infections dropped in Vernon to eight from 14 each day, held steady in Penticton at just under two a day, and declined in the South Okanagan from five to three a day.
No cases of COVID-19 were reported last week in the Princeton-Keremeos area, Grand Forks, Castlegar-Trail, or Kimberley-Creston.
For the first time in months, transmission rates in Surrey dropped out of the highest classification used by B.C. Centre for Disease Control to track the spread of the coronavirus.
The province’s highest rates of transmission are now being reported in communities such as Revelstoke, Fort Nelson, 100 Mile House, and the Cariboo/Chilcotin region.
The uptick in COVID-19 cases in greater Kelowna came after several weeks of steady decline in reports of new daily infections.
In early December, about 50 people a day were testing positive for COVID-19 in Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland.
From early 2020 until Jan. 9, 2021, 58,655 people in B.C. had tested positive for COVID-19, of whom 3,291 required treatment in hospital. To that point in the pandemic, 1,012 people had died.
None of those who died were under 30 years old. Three per cent of those who died were between 30 and 60 years old. One-third of the fatalities were people 90 or older, and 70% were 80 or older.
Currently, there are 320 British Columbians being treated in hospital for COVID-19, the lowest number since the end of November.
— About 2% of British Columbians who’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 have now received the necessary second injection.
Just over 100,000 people have received vaccination shots, the provincial government announced Thursday. About 1,700 of them have had the two shots that are required for the vaccine’s full protection.
A total of 564 new cases of COVID19, including 95 in the Interior Health region, were confirmed between Wednesday and Thursday.
New daily case counts remain well below the peak of about 850 seen in early December but officials warn against complacency.
Fifteen more deaths were reported, making the total 1,119 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.