For a second straight week, COVID-19 cases have dropped in the Kamloops Local Health Area.
There were 118 cases of the virus in the area between Oct. 10-16, which is down slightly from 131 the week prior, from Oct. 3-9. The week earlier, Sept. 26 – Oct. 2, there were 229 cases in the local health area.
The Kamloops LHA covers not just Kamloops but also Logan Lake, Savona, Tobiano, Chase, Sun Peaks, Barriere, Little Fort and communities in between.
The slightly-reduced case count comes as weekly cases of the virus are dropping across much of Interior Health.
The Merritt LHA reported 17 new cases last week compared to 24 the week prior, while the Southern Cariboo LHA saw just two new cases compared to 11 a week earlier; the Southern Cariboo LHA covers Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Clinton, and Lytton. The Salmon Arm LHA saw a large drop in cases last week with 41, compared to 86 the previous week.
Meanwhile, last week, case counts remained extremely high for most of northern B.C. on a per-capita basis, and also through the entire Fraser Valley.
Daily COVID Cases Remain High
On Thursday, B.C. health officials reported 715 new cases of COVID-19, as well as four new deaths.
There were 137 new cases in Interior Health, as well as 285 in Fraser Health, 172 in Northern Health, 61 in Island Health and 60 in Vancouver Coastal Health.
The number of patients in hospital who are contagious has risen to 377, compared to 370 on Wednesday, while 136 of the contagious hospital patients are in intensive care units.
Meanwhile, more than 15,500 vaccine doses have been administered in the past day, with just over 3,000 being first doses. With that, now 89.4 per cent of people aged 12 and older in B.C. have received at least dose, while 83.8 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Broken down further in the Kamloops area: Kamloops-South has a first-dose rate of 93 per cent, while Kamloops-North is at 85 per cent and the Lower Thompson is at 81 per cent. The Merritt LHA has a first-dose rate of 80 per cent while the Salmon Arm LHA is at 79 per cent and the Southern Cariboo LHA is at 78 per cent.
There remains one active COVID-19 outbreak in a long-term care home in Kamloops, at the Overlander Long-Term Care Centre in Brock. There have been 28 total cases, and five residents have died, although there have been no new deaths reported in a week and no new cases in eight days.
There are four active school exposures in Kamloops and five total in the Kamloops-Thompson School District. Exposures are at Haldane Elementary in Chase (risk of exposure on Oct. 8), and in Kamloops at A.E Perry Elementary (Oct. 12-14), Beattie Elementary (Oct. 8), Kay Bingham Elementary (Oct. 12) and Westmount Elementary (Oct. 8).
