New COVID-19 case numbers dropping in Lower Mainland; climbing in B.C. Interior

Strict controls over social gatherings and indoor sports were imposed on Lower Mainland residents a month ago in an effort to curtail the skyrocketing number of new COVID-19 cases. It would appear those restrictions have had little effect.

New mapping posted on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website shows the number of new cases in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal actually dropped by almost 700 in the two-week period ending Dec. 3 when compared to the prior two weeks ending Nov. 26.

Over the same time period, cases in the Interior Health and Northern Health regions grew by almost 300.

For all of B.C., the total number of new cases from Nov. 13 to Nov. 26 was 10,051. That includes an adjustment made for that period of 277 additional cases in Fraser Health.

For the Nov. 20 to Dec. 3 time frame, there were 9,742 new cases, a drop of 409.

Cases in Fraser Health – which has led the province in case counts – were down by 409 as well and Vancouver Coastal case numbers were down by 280.

Interior Health region numbers climbed 211 from 540 to 751 over the rolling two-week periods while there were 80 more cases in the North, going from 283 to 363.

Vancouver Island, which has the lowest number of cases in the province, went down by 11 cases to 221.

In the Interior Health region, all areas went up. The Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap climbed from 68 to 95 cases, the Okanagan from 420 to 597 and the Kootenays were up by seven cases to 59.

The same restrictions on social gatherings and sports imposed in the Lower Mainland on Nov. 7 were expanded provincewide on Nov. 19.

READ MORE: New sweeping health orders and restrictions for B.C.

Additional bans on things like adult team sports were imposed yesterday, Dec. 3, provincewide.

Since COVID-19 has an incubation period of 14 days, it can take some time to see if restrictions have an impact.

Despite the positive direction, it’s a long way from where the province was early in November. From Nov. 6 to Nov. 19, there were 7,425 new cases recorded, about 2,300 less than the during the most recent time frame.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submitphotos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.