For the second straight day, there have been six cases of COVID-19 in the Interior Health Authority as B.C. health officials are reporting 122 new cases today, five of which were epi-linked – for a total of 7,498 cases in the province.
It means there have been 485 cases of the virus in the Interior, with 23 new cases now active and one person in hospital.
Active cases across B.C. were up to 1,614 with 2,966 people now under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.
“Beginning today, the BC CDC website will also link to regional health authorities’ school notification pages, providing the date and type of notification for impacted schools,” said a statement from the Health Ministry. “Fraser Health’s school notification page is available now and the other regional health authorities will have theirs ready soon.”
“As we learn more and better understand where the risks exist, we will continue to adjust our COVID-19 approach and response in B.C. to protect those who are most vulnerable. This is our priority for not only COVID-19, but the second equally concerning pandemic of overdose deaths.”
There were no new deaths with the death toll remaining at 219 people. There are now 60 people in hospital of which 23 are in ICU.
Health officials are urging people not to blame or shame people in their communities who may have contracted the virus because it could discourage others from coming forward to get a test.
“Rather, we need to show compassion and care, not judgment, when there is a new case in our community,” added the statement.
“Large gatherings have been a steady source of transmission. However, many of the new cases we are seeing in the past weeks are from small gatherings where people see different groups of friends on different days – inadvertently spreading the virus to many people.
Earlier today, Interior Health put out an alert urging people who were part of a large camping event on September 12 and 13 at the Bombi Summit between Castlegar and Salmo to self-monitor for symptoms.
A total of 5,646 people – roughly 75 per cent – are considered fully recovered from the virus.
