B.C.’s COVID-19 case rise is coming largely from one part of the province

Over the past two weeks, it’s not just that the vast majority of new COVID-19 cases have been in the Lower Mainland, a much higher proportion of Lower Mainland residents are testing positive versus the Interior Health Region.

From Aug. 21 to Sept. 3 there were 1,126 new cases in B.C. with 33, or three per cent, being recorded in the Interior.

Since the pandemic began in January there have been 6,041 cases recorded in the province with about 7.5 per cent (450) being in the Interior Health Region, which makes up about 16 per cent of the provincial population.

But sheer numbers only tell part of the story.

A map of cases per Health Service Delivery Area that is updated by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control shows the number of cases per 100,000 population.

For the Interior Health region, it shows 19 cases per 100,000 in the Okanagan with lower rates in other regions: 10 per 100,000 in the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap, two per 100,000 in Kootenay-Boundary and no cases in the East Kootenay.

The picture is much different in the Lower Mainland where Fraser South led the way with 320 cases per 100,000 and Vancouver had 307. Richmond had the lowest case count per 100,000 in the Lower Mainland at 32.

Credit: Submitted/B.C. Centre for Disease Control


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics

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