Interior Health pleads with young people to take coronavirus seriously

Interior Health’s top health official is urging young people to take the virus more seriously and follow recommendations to avoid Metro Vancouver-style pandemic restrictions this winter.

Chief medical health officer Dr. Albert de Villiers said the coronavirus is mostly being contracted and spread among young people in the B.C. Southern Interior.

“It is mostly younger people, still, which is a bad thing because they are contracting the illness, but the good thing is we haven’t seen it as much in our elderly population,” he said.

“We have seen with parties or people renting houses together, especially over Halloween, so we are getting some of the fallout now, after Halloween.”

The plea comes during a surge in COVID-19 cases across the province, including the Interior Health region. Just under 200 cases are active and in isolation with two people in the hospital.

There were 18 new cases in the Interior Health region overnight, for a total of 1,106 since the pandemic began.

2:03 Kelowna reacts to regional COVID-19 restrictions for the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley

Interior Health is pleading with young people to think about the gravity of the situation if they were to inadvertently spread the virus to a high-risk person.

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“They think they are indestructible and they will get it for a few days, and they will be fine,” de Villiers said.

“My big thing always is, you never know who you are going to be in contact with. It is kind of the Canadian thing to do to make sure we look out for the whole community.”

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De Villiers said public health staff have managed to control the transmission of the virus, so far, through successful contact tracing.

“The disease is out there, and it is increasing, we were expecting it, but at least we are picking up the cases,” he said.

1:57 Neighbours upset about new COVID-19 testing facility in Kelowna

The positivity rate has also trended upwards in Interior Health to 3.6 per cent as of Nov. 12, compared to 0.3 per cent one month prior. He said that shows testing and tracing is working.

“Some other jurisdictions have decided they are not going to test as much anymore because it is just out there in the community — at least we can still control it,” de Villiers said.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s Lower Mainland remains under a two-week order that bans social gatherings with people outside one’s household, suspends indoor group physical activities and freezes competitive team sports where physical distancing can’t be maintained.

2:22 “They are not really addressing the situation at KSS as seriously as it is,” parents grow increasingly concerned as more COVID cases are announced at Kelowna Secondary School.

Interior Health said it could impose similar regional restrictions if the virus starts to spread out of control.

“If it gets much worse, then we might have to go there,” de Villiers said.

“At this point, no, but if people don’t follow the recommendations, and we cannot control it, then we might have to go there again, unfortunately.”