24 new COVID cases in Interior Health, 217 in B.C.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Interior Health (IH) continue to rise.

The agency reported 24 new infections on Tuesday, bringing the total to 717 since the pandemic started.

There are 92 active cases, with one person in hospital.

The outbreak at a French school in Kelowna (Ecole de L’Anse-au-sable) has grown to 15 cases, and about 175 people from the school community continue to self-isolate for 14 days.

IH said there are now two COVID cases at Kelowna Secondary School, and two at St. Joseph Elementary School in Kelowna (Catholic Independent Schools Nelson Diocese).

Provincially, there are 217 new cases, including two epi-linked cases, for a total of 13,588 cases.

There are 2,322 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 5,101 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 10,954 people who tested positive have recovered.

Currently, 84 individuals are hospitalized, with 27 in intensive care.

The provincial death toll remains at 259.

There have been two new health-care facility outbreaks at Felburn Care Centre and St. Michael’s Centre. In total, 21 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and two acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.

There have been no new community outbreaks.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 4,476 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 7,674 in Fraser Health, 250 in Island Health, 717 in the Interior Health region, 383 in Northern Health and 88 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

The B.C. government has extended the provincial state of emergency through the end of Nov. 10, 2020, to allow staff to deal with the pandemic.

The original declaration was made on March 18, 2020, the day after Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, declared a public health emergency.