Long-term care facilities in the Okanagan are again being hit by COVID-19 outbreaks after a long stretch of relative calm.
Since Saturday, 11 care homes across the Southern Interior have reported an outbreak. There are 18 health facility outbreaks overall and one hospital outbreak.
Within the Okanagan specifically, four are in Kelowna, two are in Vernon, one is in Armstrong, one is in Oliver, one is in Osoyoos and one is in Summerland.
The Interior Health region recorded 550 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the highest one-day total since the onset of the pandemic two years ago.
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The previous peak was 532 cases, reported both on Tuesday of this week and on Jan. 7.
Updated data suggests that, while cases of the Omicron variant are no longer rising sharply, as they began to do in late December, the hoped-for downward trend in numbers has yet to take hold in the Southern Interior.
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