New COVID-19 cases in the Interior continue to make up a significant chunk of B.C.’s total cases, and Dr. Bonnie Henry says the issue is “concerning.”
Despite making up about 15 per cent of B.C.’s population, Interior Health has accounted for close to 40 per cent of the province’s cases, on average, over the past week.
“It is clusters, primarily in smaller communities, where there’s been an introduction and some transmission, particularly in pockets of unvaccinated people,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday.
“[Getting vaccine to people] is a challenge, particularly in the North and Interior where we have many small communities, and of course, right now where we have everything from wildfire and smoke as well to contend with.”
She also noted there’s been transmission into Interior communities from out-of-town travellers.
“Some have been related to travel, from other parts of the country in particular, mostly again in people who are not vaccinated and pockets of transmission,” Dr. Henry said.
On her recent trip to Kelowna to meet with Interior Health frontline workers, she said she noticed “things were happening very quickly” in the city with regards to the tourism season.
She said that while the proportion of Interior cases relative to the rest of B.C. is increasing, the actual number of new cases has remained relatively low.
“The other thing we look at is the percent positive in testing, and that has come down in the Interior, although it is higher than the very low rates we’re seeing in many other parts of the province,” she said.
New cases in the Central Okanagan have been on a downward trend in recent weeks. The latest data shows that between June 27 and July 3, 47 new cases were identified in the Central Okanagan – about half of all of the Interior’s cases over that time period.
“I do feel that [Interior Health] has a strong public health response and that they are managing cases,” Dr. Henry said.
“We know where each of the transmission events are happening. I do expect it will slow down in the coming days and weeks as we manage this and as we get immunization rates up.”
