COVID-19 cases stay flat in Vernon, rise in Interior

COVID-19 cases are staying flat in Vernon and rising in the Interior, but are falling provincially.

The latest weekly report from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) shows nine cases of COVID-19 in the Vernon health area, 183 from the Interior and 900 across all of B.C. between July 31 and Aug. 6.

The figure for Vernon is the same as the week prior, while for the Interior as a whole it is up from 164 confirmed cases between July 24 and 30.

While the local number remained flat and the regional figure rose, B.C. saw cases drop as there were 983 confirmed cases the week before.

Additionally, the Interior and B.C. both saw hospitalization figures fall. There were a total of 173 British Columbians administered to hospital with COVID-19 in the latest week, 32 of whom were in the Interior. Those are down from the 312 hospitalizations in B.C. and 40 in the Interior from the past week.

B.C. had 35 people entered into critical care in the latest week, including two from the Interior, both of which are down on a week-over-week basis.

There were 28 deaths linked to COVID-19 in B.C. between July 31 and Aug. 6, but that’s half of the 54 recorded the week before. Of the recent deaths, six came from the Interior.

To date, there have been 380,174 cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 67,580 cases from the Interior and 5,629 from the Vernon health area.

A total of 3,995 British Columbians have died due to COVID-19, 571 of whom were in the Interior.

The BCCDC did not provide hospitalization or death data for specific health areas.