Cowichan Tribes on Vancouver Island have now recorded a fourth COVID-19-related death since the new year and are dealing with a rising number of infections.
There were no cases recorded in the communities prior to the start of 2021.
Along with the deaths, 230 people in the communities of about 4,900 have been confirmed to have contracted the virus this year.
“We were anticipating we would have the virus in our community at the start of the new year as a result of the Christmas break and New Year’s. So we went from two cases on Jan. 1 to 230 cases yesterday,” the Cowichan Tribes health director Derek Thompson told Global News Tuesday.
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He said they have made their own shelter-in-place bylaw that is now in effect until March 5, along with following the provincial health orders.
In January, 661 COVID-19 vaccines were administered to members but Thompson said they were only notified this week that they were going to be receiving more vaccines on Wednesday.
“We had anticipated rolling out our second vaccination clinic on the 22nd and the rest of this week. Obviously, we’ve had to shift our timeframes now and we’ll be administrating our second doses the first week of March,” he confirmed.
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