COVID cases up in Interior Health, falling in rest of B.C.

While there has been a steady decline in the number of new daily cases of COVID-19 in B.C., the trend is going in the other direction in the Interior Health region, especially in the Central Okanagan.

The latest data from the B.C. Centre for Disease control shows that the number of new cases in the Interior Health region grew to 334 during the week of May 16 to 22, up from 321 the week before.

While that’s only a slight increase, the B.C. case count fell by more than 200 during the same time period.

Particularly hard hit was the Central Okanagan. It saw an increase to 224 cases from 185 the week before.

The South Okanagan also saw a jump to 12 from five.

The region’s other larger cities all saw their case count numbers drop.

Kamloops recorded 22 new cases, down from 32 the week before. Vernon dropped to 16 from 19 and Penticton had one less case, with 13 recorded last week.

As of yesterday, May 26, there were 485 active cases in the Interior Health region, with 14 people in hospital, eight of whom were in intensive café.

To date, 431,765 Interior Health residents have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Register for vaccinations at the Get Vaccinated website here or by calling 1-833-838-2323.

For more data, go to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website here.

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.