A Kelowna, B.C., man who recently returned from vacation in Turkey is the first person in the Interior Health region to die from COVID-19, Global News has learned.
Provincial health authorities confirmed on Wednesday that a patient in his 60s had passed away after contracting the novel coronavirus, but did not release his identity.
However, friends and family of the man have come forward and identified him as 69-year-old Dennis Rau of the central Okanagan city.
Rau was a retired Canada Revenue Agency employee who leaves behind a wife and two adult children.
Friends tell Global News he became ill after returning from vacationing in Turkey a month ago. They say the couple believed they caught the virus at either an airport or one of the three airplanes they took in rushing to get home.
The man had been mostly at home, said Dr. Bonnie Henry, but had gone to hospital in an acute condition prior to his death. She did not say what day or where he died.
Friends say Rau and his wife self-isolated until he became gravely ill and was admitted into ICU at Kelowna General Hospital.
Until this week, the region had only seen consistently weekly increases of confirmed coronavirus cases.
Provincial and regional health authorities in B.C. have steadfastly refused to release information about how many confirmed cases a smaller region, district or county may have, unlike their counterparts in Alberta or Washington state.
The Interior Health region is a massive stretch of land that is approximately 215,000 square kilometres in size — bigger than Washington state (185,000 sq. km).
According to Interior Health, the region serves 59 incorporated municipalities and more than 90 unincorporated places, and has an approximate population of 762,000.
In other news, Henry said there are now 146 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Interior Health region, up from 141 on Tuesday.
Further, she said the number of positive cases at the Bylands Nurseries outbreak in West Kelowna rose by three to 26, and that the Okanagan Correctional Centre has remained at one positive case.
Elsewhere, the number of confirmed cases throughout the province rose to 1,561, including:
- 670 in the Vancouver Coastal region
- 623 in the Fraser region
- 92 on Vancouver Island
- 30 in Northern B.C.
There were also two other COVID-19 deaths in B.C., bringing the provincial total to 75.
“We understand that families will be grieving and they tell us in the most profound way possible that we have to be kind and pull together,” said health minister Adrian Dix.
“We extend our condolences, and both Dr. Henry and I reflect on it every single day before we come down here.”
According to a website dedicated to tracking COVID-19, there were 2,049,888 confirmed cases worldwide as of Wednesday.
The United States had the most confirmed cases at 634,975, and was followed by Spain (177,644), Italy (165,155), Germany (133,456) and France (131,365). Canada was 13th at 28,205.
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