Coronavirus: 17 cases announced for Interior Health, steady decline in Okanagan continues

For the first time in months, the number of weekly confirmed cases in the Okanagan fell below triple digits.

On Thursday, data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control showed that from Feb. 5 to 11, the Okanagan had 90 cases — the first time since autumn that there’s been less than 100 new cases.

The drop also continued a trend which saw caseload totals fall for a fifth consecutive week following a spike of 303 cases during the first week of January.

Since then, the numbers have steadily dropped; for the week of Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, there were 150 reported cases for the Okanagan.

Further, the number of subregions where no cases were reported grew by one to 14.

From Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, there were 13 subregions with no cases, though all of them have small populations. From Jan. 22-28, there were five regions with no cases.

To further the case of falling numbers, Interior Health declared two outbreaks over on Wednesday:

• At Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake, where 14 cases had been reported;
• And at Sunnybank Centre in Oliver, where six deaths and 38 cases had been linked to the South Okanagan care home.

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On Tuesday, IH also declared an outbreak over at a long-term care centre in Vernon, Heritage Square. Nine deaths and 70 cases had been linked to the facility.

Interior Health also said an outbreak in Fernie had zero new cases since its last report on Feb. 12. Ninety-seven people have tested positive in the region since Jan. 1.

And on Thursday, the BC CDC reported just 17 new cases for Interior Health. The number of deaths for the region was listed at 90, while the number of active cases was listed at 692.

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Below are the weekly case totals for the Okanagan since late October:

• Oct. 30 to Nov. 12: 144 cases
• Nov. 13-26: 420 cases
• Nov. 20 to Dec. 3: 597 cases
• Dec. 4-10: 371 cases
• Dec. 11-17: 375 cases
• Dec. 18-24: 290 cases
• Dec. 25-31: 210 cases
• Jan. 1-7: 303 cases
• Jan. 8-14: 222 cases
• Jan. 15-21: 173 cases
• Jan. 22-28: 152 cases
• Jan. 29 to Feb. 4: 150 cases
• Feb. 5-11: 90 cases

Number of cases per major region, from Jan. 1, 2020 to Feb. 11, 2021:

Note: Prior cases from Jan. 1, 2020, to Feb. 4, 2021, in brackets

• Okanagan: 4,122 cases (4,033)
• Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap: 2,230 cases (1,976)
• East Kootenay: 361 cases (358)
• Kootenay Boundary: 203 cases (202)

Number of cases per major region from Feb. 5-11:

Note: Prior cases from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4 in brackets

• Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap: 264 cases (261)
• Okanagan: 90 cases (150)
• East Kootenay: 3 cases (10)
• Kootenay Boundary: 0 cases (2)

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Number of cases per subregion or local health authority, from Feb. 7-13:

Note: Prior cases from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6 in brackets

• Kamloops: 116 (161)
• Central Okanagan: 69 (76)
• Merritt: 26 (30)
• Revelstoke: 22 (19)
• Salmon Arm: 14 (26)
• Vernon: 11 (18)
• Cariboo-Chilcotin: 8 (28)
• Summerland: 4 (5)
• South Cariboo: 3 (0)
• South Okanagan: 3 (2)
• 100 Mile House: 2 (3)
• Armstrong: 1 (4)
• Keremeos: 1 (0)
• Kimberley: 1 (1)
• Penticton: 1 (10)
• Windermere: 1 (1)
• Arrow Lakes: 0 (0)
• Castlegar: 0 (0)
• Cranbrook: 0 (1)
• Creston: 0 (0)
• Enderby: 0 (3)
• Fernie: 0 (1)
• Golden: 0 (0)
• Grand Forks: 0 (0)
• Kettle Valley: 0 (2)
• Kootenay Lake: 0 (0)
• Lillooet: 0 (0)
• Nelson: 0 (0)
• North Thompson: 0 (0)
• Princeton: 0 (0)
• Trail: 0 (0)

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

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