COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations on the rise in Interior

The Interior has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s (BCCDC) weekly report showed there were 123 cases of COVID-19 and 38 COVID positive patients admitted to hospital between Nov. 27 and Dec. 3.

That’s up from the previous week’s data of 115 cases and 25 hospitalizations.

Additionally, there were nine people admitted to intensive care units in the Interior in the latest reporting week, up from six ICU admissions the previous week.

Preliminary data from the BCCDC confirmed five deaths in the region linked to the virus, down from 13 the previous week.

Meanwhile, B.C. as a whole saw all COVID-19 instances fall on a weekly basis.

Between Nov. 27 and Dec. 3, there were 539 cases, 140 hospital admissions, including 33 in the ICU, and 17 deaths linked to COVID-19.

Those are down from the previous week’s totals of 604 cases, 213 hospitalizations, including 42 ICU admissions, and 42 deaths.

The centre reported that, as of Dec. 8, there were a total of 60 COVID-19 positive patients in the Interior, including five in ICU.

In all of B.C., there were 359 people in hospital with the virus, 34 of whom were in intensive care.

To date, there have been a total of 390,626 COVID-19 cases in the province, 68,809 of which were from within the Interior.

A total of 4,715 British Columbians have died due to COVID-19, 751 of whom were from the Interior.

The BCCDC is not providing details on cases in specific health areas.