The Central Okanagan saw a spike in coronavirus cases during the week of Christmas, according to new data.
The B.C. Centre of Disease Control (BC CDC) says between Dec. 20 and 26, the region had 214 new cases of COVID-19.
To put that in perspective, the Central Okanagan had just 239 total cases from Jan. 1 to Oct. 1.
Since health officials began slowly releasing numbers in the fall for subregions throughout the province, the Central Okanagan has recorded by far the most amount of confirmed cases within Interior Health.
And the latest data again underscores that. The Interior Health subregion that had the second-most cases from Dec. 20 to 26 was Vernon with 48 — or one-quarter of what the Central Okanagan recorded. Next were Penticton (31), Kamloops (27) and Revelstoke (22).
On a larger scale, the number of cases in the entire Okanagan region from Jan. 1 to Dec. 24 grew to 2,694 – an increase of 807 cases from the 1,887 case total announced on Dec. 10.
The Okanagan region is comprised of these subregions: Enderby, Armstrong/Spallumcheen, Vernon, Central Okanagan, Summerland, Penticton, Southern Okanagan, Keremeos and Princeton.
The three other major Interior Health regions — Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap, Kootenay Boundary and East Kootenay — also saw their case totals increase as well.
Below are the data points for case totals for regions and subregions within Interior Health.
Number of cases per major region, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 24:
- Okanagan: 2,694 (Jan. 1 to Dec. 10: 1,887)
- Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap: 507 (Jan. 1 to Dec. 10: 387)
- East Kootenay: 168 (Jan. 1 to Dec. 10: 139)
- Kootenay Boundary: 142 (Jan. 1 to Dec. 10: 89)
The BC CDC also posted caseload data between Dec. 18 and 24.
- Okanagan: 290 cases
- Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap: 59 cases
- Kootenay Boundary: 8 cases
- East Kootenay: 9 cases
Number of cases per subregion, from Dec. 20 to 26:
- Central Okanagan: 214
- Vernon: 48
- Penticton: 31
- Kamloops: 27
- Revelstoke: 22
- South Okanagan: 15
- Enderby: 8
- Armstrong: 4
- Castlegar: 4
- Fernie: 4
- Kettle Valley: 4
- Summerland: 4
- North Thompson: 3
- Cariboo-Chilcotin: 2
- Creston: 2
- Lillooet: 2
- Merritt: 2
- Salmon Arm: 2
- Windermere: 2
- 100 Mile House: 1
- Keremeos: 1
- Kimberley: 1
- Kootenay Lake: 1
- Nelson: 1
- Trail: 1
- Arrow Lakes: 0
- Cranbrook: 0
- Golden: 0
- Grand Forks: 0
- Princeton: 0
- South Cariboo: 0
To view the B.C. Centre of Disease Control’s coronavirus statistics, click here.