The COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Inland Hospital has grown to 23 cases as of Friday.

Interior Health says the outbreak in Unit 5 South is now affecting 18 patients and five staff members.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry says work in ongoing to determine what caused this outbreak, which was declared last Tuesday.

“Even with fully vaccinated healthcare workers we know that sometimes there is breakthrough and they may not get sick or very ill themselves, but it can still be transmitted,” she said.

“We also have seen that where we have high that sort of firewall of most people being vaccinated or at least all staff being vaccinated, that the rate of growth of outbreaks and how many people they affect is much much less and these outbreaks come under control much more rapidly.”

Henry though says this outbreak is a reminder for people to follow precautions – especially in high risk settings like a hospital –  even if you’re fully vaccinated.

“There are people who are in hospital who are not recognized as having COVID and unfortunately, they can transmit to people. So those are all things that we need to bear in mind,” she added. “That is why it is still important even with vaccination of staff that we follow infection control precautions and testing and other things.”

This is the fourth COVID-19 outbreak at the Kamloops hospital this year.

The other outbreaks have been at Unit 6 South, a surgical unit, which was impacted during the first outbreak in January and February and the second outbreak in June and July, and in Unit 6 North, the dedicated space for COVID-positive patients, which was impacted in the first outbreak and during the third outbreak in September and October.

Unit 5 South has been closed to new admissions, Interior Health told NL News yesterday, adding that an outbreak management team has been created.

“The hospital remains safe to visit for anyone needing emergency care,” IHA said on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Kamloops, an outbreak at the Brocklehurst Gemstone long-term care home has grown to four cases – three residents and one staff.

It comes as B.C. reported 549 new cases of the virus, with 110 in Interior Health.

Active cases in B.C. are at 4,483 with 686 of those cases in the Interior. Across B.C., there are 441 contagious people in hospital with COVID-19, 129 of whom are in intensive care.

As of Friday, there are now 90.2 per cent of eligible people over the age of 12 (4,179,061) who have gotten their first dose of a COVID vaccine, while 85.7 per cent (3,973,745) are fully vaccinated.