For the second successive week, the Kamloops Local Health Area has seen 249 reported COVID-19 cases, matching the previous week’s record set during the week of Aug. 22 to 28.
That makes the week of Aug. 29 to Sept. 4 the third consecutive week that the area has reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases fuelled by the Delta variant.
Transmission continues to be driven primarily by people who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. While reporting 814 new cases Wednesday, the province said nearly 78 per cent of new cases and 86 per cent of hospitalizations were people not yet not fully vaccinated.
In Kamloops Centre North, 80 per cent of residents over the age of 12 have one dose of the vaccine, while 72 per cent are fully vaccinated as of Wednesday. In Kamloops Centre South, those rates are higher with 88 per cent partially immunized to go with 80 per cent fully vaccinated.
The previous weekly record of 193 cases was set the week of Aug. 15 to 21 in the area which includes not only the City of Kamloops but also Sun Peaks, Chase, Barriere, Little Fort, Savona, Tobiano and Logan Lake.
This latest data means there is still an average daily rate of more than 20 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the Kamloops area, with the Merritt area also matching that level of transmission as it reported 21 cases last week, up from eight the week before.
Data shows 19 of the 31 LHAs within Interior Health reporting daily case rates higher than 20 per 100,000 people, including Vernon, Central Okanagan, Salmon Arm, Enderby, Armstrong, Penticton, the South Cariboo, Cariboo/Chilcotin, and the Kootenays joining Golden, Smithers, Peace River North and South, and Hope to name a few elsewhere in the province.
The Vernon Local Health Area actually saw a decrease in new weekly cases to 169 from 263, while the Central Okanagan, which includes Kelowna, saw another slight decrease in cases to 478 from 511, though it remains the highest in the province.
In Salmon Arm there were 76 cases last week, down from 93 the week before, while the Cariboo/Chilcotin saw an increase to 77 new cases. The South Cariboo also saw a big increase to 19 cases (up from five).
There were another seven cases in 100 Mile House (down from 11), five in Lillooet (up from three), and three cases in the North Thompson (unchanged).
For the third straight week, every single local health area in the Interior reported new COVID-19 cases, with a majority again in the Kootenays and in the Okanagan.
Across B.C., cases have been trending up with only Vancouver Island West and parts of the Central Coast reporting no new cases last week.
A full map of last week’s COVID-19 case count by locations can be found here.
