Coronavirus: Interior Health case totals rising, but data widely varies

Interior Health is still seeing an overall increase in confirmed coronavirus cases, but how big or small that rise is varies widely from area to area.

The Okanagan region, for example, had 2,956 cases from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, according to the latest data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

That’s up 262 cases from 2,694 on Dec. 24.

At the same time, though, Interior Health’s three other major regions had small to modest increases, such as Kootenay Boundary, which saw a rise of just seven cases, from 142 to 149, during that same time span.

Delving into subregion totals sees even greater disparity.

The Central Okanagan has consistently been Interior Health’s largest caseload region. This week’s data says the subregion experienced 139 new cases between Dec. 27, 2020, and Jan. 2, 2021.

But that rise is statistically down from the previous week’s total of 214 from Dec. 20 to 26. Also showing a decrease was the Pentiction subregion, which went from 31 cases during the week of Christmas to 15 new cases between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2.

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On the other hand, though, the Vernon subregion saw 76 new cases from Dec. 27 to Jan. 2, up from 48 new cases announced between Dec. 20 and 26.

The subregion of Revelstoke also increased, to 37 from 22.

On Tuesday, Interior Health said it highly encouraged residents “to closely monitor their regional COVID-19 case data to maintain a sense of the COVID-19 circulation in their community.”

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. 31, 2020:

Note: Prior cases from Jan. 1 to Dec. 24 in brackets

• Okanagan: 2,956 cases (2,694)
• Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap: 600 cases (507)
• East Kootenay: 184 cases (168)
• Kootenay Boundary: 149 cases (142)

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Caseload data between Dec. 25 to 31:

Note: Prior cases from Dec. 18 to 24 in brackets

• Okanagan: 210 cases (290)
• Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap: 81 cases (59)
• East Kootenay: 15 cases (9)
• Kootenay Boundary: 4 cases (8)

Number of cases per subregion, from Dec. 20 to 26:

Note: Prior cases from Dec. 20 to 26 in brackets

• Central Okanagan: 139 (214)
• Vernon: 76 (48)
• Kamloops: 68 (27)
• Revelstoke: 37 (22)
• South Okanagan: 27 (15)
• Penticton: 15 (31)
• Golden: 14 (0)
• Merritt: 9 (2)
• 100 Mile House: 8 (1)
• Cariboo-Chilcotin: 8 (2)
• Lillooet: 8 (2)
• Nelson: 7 (1)
• Cranbrook: 4 (0)
• Enderby: 4 (8)
• Kettle Valley: 4 (4)
• Salmon Arm: 4 (2)
• Summerland: 4 (4)
• Armstrong: 3 (4)
• Windermere: 2 (2)
• Castlegar: 1 (4)
• Creston: 1 (2)
• Fernie: 1 (4)
• Princeton: 1 (0)
• South Cariboo: 1 (0)
• Trail: 1 (1)
• Keremeos: 1 (1)
• Kimberley: 0 (1)
• Arrow Lakes: 0 (0)
• Grand Forks: 0 (0)
• Kootenay Lake: 0 (1)
• North Thompson: 0 (3)

To view the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s coronavirus statistics, click here.