No staff infected in COVID outbreak at Kelowna General Hospital

Twenty-one patients on the Kelowna General Hospital rehabilitation ward have been infected with COVID-19 but so far no staff members.

An outbreak was declared on the ward on April 12 with 20 cases. That has increased by one as of today, April 19.

No outside patients are treated in the ward.

“This is an inpatient unit,” says an emailed statement from Interior Health. “Additional infection control measures have been implemented on the unit including pausing non-essential visits and testing all patients on the unit.”

READ MORE: RISK OF INFECTION: How long is too long when it comes to new COVID subvariant exposure?

There are outbreaks in five other care facilities in the Kamloops and Okanagan regions. Those include the Hamlets at Westsyde and Building A at the Overlander long-term care facility, both in Kamloops.

There are outbreaks at Brandt’s Creek Mews in Kelowna, the Webber Units of the Village at Smith Creek in West Kelowna and the North Wing of Westview Place in Penticton.

No details have been posted on the Interior Health website about the number of cases in each facility.


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Rob Munro

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