The Kamloops Local Health Area saw 249 COVID-19 cases reported during the week of August 22 and 28, the highest it has ever been in a single week since the B.C. Centre for Disease Control began releasing the data.

It breaks the old record of 193 cases set the week before in the area which includes not only the City of Kamloops but also Sun Peaks, Chase, Barriere, Little Fort, Savona, Tobiano and Logan Lake.

The new data means there is still an average daily rate of more than 20 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the Kamloops area.

Vernon also nearly doubled its weekly COVID-19 cases from 133 to 263 cases, while the Central Okanagan, which includes Kelowna, saw another decrease in weekly COVID-19 cases to 511 from 737.

Once again, every single local health area in the Interior reported new COVID-19 cases, with a majority of in the Kootenays and in the Okanagan, from Keremeos all the way to the Alberta border.

In Salmon Arm there were 93 cases last week, up from 79 the week before, while the Cariboo/Chilcoton saw an increase to 66 new cases.

There were 11 cases in 100 Mile House (up from 6), eight cases in Merritt (down from 13), three in Lillooet (up from two), with three cases also in the North Thompson (down from four), with five cases in the South Cariboo (unchanged from last week).

Across B.C., cases have been trending up with only Haida Gwaii and northern Vancouver Island reporting no new cases last week.

A full map of last week’s COVID-19 case count by locations can be found here.