COVID-19: Interior Health trending upwards, leading B.C. in new daily cases

Provincial officials announced 112 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with just over half coming from the Interior Health region.

Despite having a smaller population than the two Lower Mainland health regions, Vancouver Coastal and Fraser, Interior Health had 59 new cases.

By comparison, Vancouver Coastal had 15 new cases on Friday, while Fraser Health had 30 new cases.

Interior Health has an approximate population of 800,000; Vancouver Coastal serves around 1.25 million, while Fraser Health serves 1.9 million.

Friday’s data also marked nearly a week where Interior Health has had more confirmed daily cases than other health regions.

July 22

• Interior Health: 60
• Fraser Health: 23
• Vancouver Coastal: 10

July 21

• Interior Health: 38
• Fraser Health: 34
• Vancouver Health: 19

July 20

• Interior Health: 29
• Fraser Health: 24
• Vancouver Health: 22

July 19

• Interior Health: 34
• Fraser Health: 15
• Vancouver Health: 12

July 18

• Fraser Health: 24
• Interior Health: 12
• Vancouver Health: 11

July 17

• Interior Health: 27
• Fraser Health: 26
• Vancouver Health: 7

July 16

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• Interior Health: 21
• Fraser Health: 19
• Vancouver Health: 12

July 15

• Interior Health: 22
• Fraser Health: 14
• Vancouver Health: 8

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Regarding total active cases, Interior Health also currently has the most throughout at B.C., at 256. Next are Fraser Health (199), Vancouver Coastal (110), Island Health (22) and Northern Health (10).

Further, officials report four new deaths in the last 24 hours, with two within Interior Health. The other two were in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal.

Global News reached out to Interior Health for more information regarding the upward trend.

On Friday afternoon, Interior Health said since B.C. entered Stage 3 of its reopening phase on July 1:

• Around 70 per cent of the cases in Interior Health were in people who were not vaccinated
• 26 per cent of cases were in people who were partially immunized
• 4 per cent of the cases were in people who had received two doses.

Interior Health added that most of these cases are in adults between 20-39 years old, and, aside from a handful of clusters in rural communities, most cases are in the Central Okanagan.

“Our immunization campaign has not wavered, even with the challenges our region is facing due to the various wildfires,” said Interior Health.

“COVID-19 vaccination rates continue to rise in all communities in Interior Health, and we are nearing 1 million doses across Interior Health. We do see some areas in IH with lower immunization rates than other areas and we are expanding our immunization program to make it easier for people to get vaccinated.”

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Interior Health said it launched mobile immunization clinics in early June to target more rural and remote communities so people could get immunized closer to home.

“We have been very pleased with how successful the mobile clinics have been and we have expanded them to the end of July and added some urban stops in our larger cities,” said Interior Health.

“We continue to work with our community partners and municipalities to explore additional ways to reach people in their communities.”

More information regarding provincial COVID-19 data can be found at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

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