Big jump in Interior Health COVID-19 cases hits Central Okanagan hardest

Climbing numbers of COVID-19 cases in B.C. are mirrored in data for the Interior Health region.

In the past week, there were 461 new cases in the Interior Health region, up from 315 the week before. That’s the highest weekly case count since the end of January.

Cases in the Central Okanagan jumped by 73 to 214 from 141 the previous week and only 70 the week before that.

The most recent data posted on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website is for the week of March 28 to April 3.

The increase was not so dramatic in Kamloops where 48 new cases were recorded versus 30 the week before. Vernon case numbers climbed to 33 from 21 while Penticton actually saw a decline to 16 from 19.

A number of smaller communities, particularly in the Kootenays, recorded COVID cases where often there had been none in most previous weeks.

Windermere was hardest hit with 24 new cases in the past week. The previous highest number of new weekly cases there since the end of November was four.

The province as a whole has set records for the number of new daily COVID case in recent days, recording four days with more than 1,000 new cases since March 30.

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