Virus hotspots creeping further into north
An average of 10 people a day tested positive for COVID-19 in the Central Okanagan last week. Infection rates in Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland have remained relatively constant in recent weeks after declining from a peak of about 50 a day in early December.
Latest community-specific infection numbers, released Wednesday by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, show average new daily case counts dropped in Vernon to less than three from seven and held in Penticton at 1.5.
It’s a different situation around Kamloops, where an average of 23 people a day tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Merritt is also a hot spot, with about five people a day.
Conversely, there were no new cases of COVID-19 last week in Nelson, Castlegar, Trail, Grand Forks, and Golden, and only four cases total in the areas around Fernie, Cranbook, Kimberly and Windermere.
Highest transmission rates, of more than 20 cases a day per 100,000 of population, are currently around Fort Nelson, northwestern B.C., Burns Lake, and the Bella Coola Valley.
No Lower Mainland areas are classed in the highest transmission category, though Abbotsford and Surrey are in the secondhighest, with between 15 and 20 people of every 100,000 population testing positive each day.
The province’s newest comprehensive COVID-19 situation report, also released Wednesday, showed 68,572 British Columbians had been infected by COVID-19 to the end of January.
That equates to 1.3% of the total population of 5.1 million.
Of those who have been infected, 1.7% — or 1,218 people — have died. Seventy per cent of the deaths have been of people who were 80 or older. Nobody under 30 has died of COVID-19 in B.C.