Less than a dozen per day positive

An average of 11 people a day tested positive for COVID-19 in the Central Okanagan last week.

That was up slightly, from about 10 a day, the week before. Average new daily case counts dropped from eight to seven in Vernon, held steady in Penticton at 1.5, and fell to 0.4 from 0.8 in the South Okanagan.

In early December, about 50 people a day were testing positive for COVID19 in the Central Okanagan, which includes Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland.

Except for one week since then and the latest slight uptick, the average number of people in the Central Okanagan testing positive for the disease has declined steadily.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control updates infection numbers on a community basis every Wednesday. The latest release shows the highest COVID-19 transmission rates are currently in the Merritt area, Howe Sound, Terrace, the Cariboo-Chilcotin, and Fort Nelson.

No Lower Mainland communities are classed in the highest transmission range, which is described as more than 20 cases a day per 100,000 of population.

Up until Dec. 31, 2,289 people in the Central Okanagan had tested positive for COVID-19. That equates to just over 1% of the area’s population of roughly 215,000.

Across the entire Interior Health area, with a population of 780,000, there have been 6,459 cases of COVID19, for an infection rate of less than 1%; 75 people have died of COVID-19.

Nobody under age 30 has died of COVID-19 in B.C. Deaths of people between the ages of 30 and 70 account for 11% of fatalities though this age group makes up 54% of the population. Seventy percent of all fatalities have been people age 80 or older, though this group makes up 5% of the general population.

In early December, the province introduced the most stringent public health orders yet issued to try control the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Among other things, the order prevents people from gathering in one another’s homes, pauses worship services and some types of adult sports, and advises against non-essential travel even within B.C.

The order is set to expire today, but previous orders have been extended with the government saying the situation did not warrant their lifting.