Kelowna COVID-19 cases drop by nearly 25% in latest BCCDC map, rest of the Okanagan follows

Kelowna’s share of COVID-19 cases is continuing on a downward trajectory, though it’s still racking up more cases per week than any other B.C. city.

There were 360 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in the area spanning from Lake Country to Peachland from Sept. 5 to Sept. 11, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control’s map of new cases, which breaks down COVID-19 spread by local health area.

It means that the Central Okanagan was averaging 51 cases a day that week. That’s a 25 per cent reduction from the week earlier, Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, when there were 478 cases. The week before that there were 511 cases.

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Vernon had 165 cases in the week of Sept. 5 to Sept. 11, which is down from 169 cases the week of Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, and down again from the week before that, when there were 263 cases.

Penticton has managed to reduce its caseload to 47 for the week, down from 69 the two previous weeks in a row.

Kamloops is one of the few in the Interior that saw cases rise. In that city, they rose to 270 from 249 cases in the two previous weeks.

Cases are starting to tick up in the Fraser Valley, which reflects information shared in the province’s daily update on cases by the health authority. Fraser Health now regularly surpasses Interior Health for case counts.

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On Wednesday, the province reported there were 5,791 active cases in the province, down from 6,165 the day prior.

Of the new cases, 237 were in the Fraser Health region, 99 were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 196 were in the Interior Health region, 62 were in the Northern Health region and 66 were in the Island Health region.

The number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital remained unchanged at 288, while the number of patients in intensive care fell by three to 137.

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More than 3.99 million British Columbians — 86.1 per cent of those eligible and 77.5 per cent of B.C.’s population — have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 3.64 million people — 78.6 per cent of those eligible and 70.8 per cent of B.C.’s population — have been fully immunized.

Fully vaccinated people accounted for 23.5 per cent of new cases over the last week, and 12.7 per cent of people hospitalized over the past two weeks.

Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 176,480 cases and 1.873 deaths.