There are now 141 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Interior Health region, the provincial government announced on Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday, there were 136 confirmed cases throughout the region, which has an approximate population of 762,000. On March 17, there were seven confirmed cases in Interior Health.
In making Tuesday’s announcement, health officials also said there were 27 new confirmed cases of coronavirus throughout B.C., bringing the provincial total to 1,517. Monday’s provincial total was 1,490.
There are 23 positive cases of COVID-19 at the Bylands Nurseries in West Kelowna. Interior Health said there are no cases in the community related to the West Kelowna nursery outbreak beyond the impacted workers, so health officials are confident the outbreak is being contained.
Dr. Bonnie Henry added that the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver has remained at one positive case of COVID-19, and that outbreak prevention measures are ongoing.
Elsewhere, there are 658 cases in Vancouver Coastal, 601 in the Fraser region, 89 on Vancouver Island and 28 in Northern B.C.
Henry and health minister Adrian Dix also confirmed three more deaths, with B.C.’s total now at 72. All three deaths occurred in long-term care homes in the Lower Mainland.
According to a website dedicated to tracking COVID-19, there were 1,970,897 confirmed cases worldwide.
The United States had the most confirmed cases at 602,989, and was followed by Spain (172,541), Italy (162,488), France (131,361) and Germany (131,359). Canada was 12th at 26,897.