After COVID-19 case numbers dropped for three straight weeks in the Kamloops local health area, the case count has crept up in the past week.

According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, the Kamloops LHA saw 145 new cases between Oct. 17-23, compared to 131 the week before that.

Week-over-week new cases also rose in Vernon (69 last week), Enderby (33), Armstrong (17), and Salmon Arm (47), while dropping in Merritt (seven), the South Cariboo (zero), 100 Mile (three), and also in the Central Okanagan (157).

The worst areas of the province for case spread last week, on a per capita basis, covered all of the local health areas in northern B.C., from Williams Lake to Fort Nelson and Prince George to Prince Rupert (with the exceptions of Kitimat and Haida Gwaii), as well as Hope, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Port Alberni, and Enderby and Armstrong.

This comes as B.C. reported another 609 new virus cases and six deaths, as the number of contagious hospital patients in B.C. remains high at 422 patients.