Much of Okanagan lagging behind province on vaccination front

Enderby has one of the lowest vaccination rates in B.C. with only 54 per cent of residents over the age of 12 having received one dose of vaccination by June 7.

Only two areas in the Northern Health region showed lower vaccination rates based on new data released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. One was Fort Nelson at 46 per cent.

Other Okanagan communities ranked poorly as well, including Armstrong/Spullumcheen at 59 per cent Salmon Arm at 63 per cent, Keremeos at 64 per cent, Vernon at 65 per cent and the Central Okanagan at 67 per cent.

Leading the way with higher vaccination rates were Summerland at 73 per cent, Penticton at 72 per cent and Kamloops at 70 per cent.

Despite the relatively low vaccination rates, the number of new cases in these communities mostly dropped as the case count for the entire Interior Health region fell to 232 for the week of May 30 to June 5 from 310 the week before.

Enderby dropped from one case to zero.

Cases in the Central Okanagan fell to 115 from 175, Kamloops cases were down to 15 from 20 and Vernon fell to 42 from 57.

Ironically Penticton, despite its high vaccination rate, saw an increase to nine cases from six. Summerland, on the other hand, dropped to zero from six the week before.

As of yesterday, June 10, there were 381 active cases in the Interior Health region with 12 people in hospital, eight of whom were in intensive care.

B.C. Centre for Disease Control data can be seen here.

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