Coronavirus: Interior Health to change way it counts Kelowna outbreak

The number of coronavirus cases linked to the Kelowna outbreak has shifted into the community, according to Interior Health.

On Wednesday evening, Interior Health announced that it will be redefining the numbers, stating “we now know the situation has shifted into more broad community transmission beyond these initial cases in downtown Kelowna.”

As a result, the health agency said it will be reporting “the number of cases occurring across Kelowna, not just cases we could confirm were associated with those early July events.”

“This new reporting will more accurately reflect what is happening in the city and region at this time.”

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Interior Health noted that this will mean a significant increase in the cluster number it has been reporting to date.

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“It is important to clarify that the vast majority of the additional cases reported (Thursday) will not be new cases,” said IH.

“These are cases that were already captured in the IH total cases, but were not officially assigned to the Kelowna cluster.”

On Wednesday, no new cases were announced for the Interior Health region.

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