COVID-19 cases rising in Vernon, Interior

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) is reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases in Greater Vernon and in the Interior Health region.

The centre’s weekly report confirmed nine new cases of the virus in the Vernon b alth area and 162 in Interior Health between July 17 and 23.

Those are up from the previous week’s figures, which were five in Vernon and 142 in the Interior.

Though the local and regional COVID-19 cases rose on a week-over-week basis, B.C. as a whole recorded 921 new cases in the latest week, marking a decline from the 1,043 cases the week prior.

Hospital admissions due to COVID-19 were down in the latest week, as 26 hospitalizations were recorded in the Interior and 222 were confirmed throughout the province. Those are down from the 31 admissions in the Interior and 293 in all of B.C. the week before.

The report from the BCCDC has also started to include critical care admissions in its weekly update. The latest reporting week had 39 ICU admissions in all of B.C. and three in the Interior. The report said the week prior had 36 ICU admissions across B.C., including nine in the Interior.

The agency also confirmed 29 COVID-releated deaths in B.C. in the latest week, down from the 39 the week before. The Interior had six deaths both this most recent week and the week prior.

To date there have been 378,291 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 67,234 in the Interior and 5,590 in the Vernon Health area.

The COVID-19 death toll to date is 3,908 in B.C., 557 of which were recorded in the Interior.

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