Interior Health sees slight rise in active COVID-19 Tuesday

Interior Health’s active COVID-19 case count rose by 25 Tuesday to 595 as 77 new cases were identified in the region.

The new cases were part of 324 recorded across B.C., bringing the provincial active case count to 3,047.

The Ministry of Health reports that, as of today, 345 British Columbians were in hospital due to complications from COVID-19, 115 of whom are in intensive care.

There was one COVID death reported in Northern Health, and as of Tuesday, 2,304 British Columbians have died due to the virus.

The province’s first dose vaccination rate for people aged 12 and over was recorded at 90.9 per cent Tuesday, while the second dose rate was 87.4 per cent.

It’s noted by the province that 54.3 per cent of new cases reported in the past week were people who had not received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 41.6 per cent were fully vaccinated.

The unvaccinated also made up 61.7 per cent of COVID hospitalizations over the past two weeks, while the fully vaccinated accounted for 31 per cent of COVID patients.

There were no new health-care facility outbreaks confirmed Tuesday, and a total of 12 facilities in B.C., including three in the Interior, remain classified as active outbreaks.

As for the outbreaks in Interior Health:

• Village by the Station long-term care in Penticton has 41 cases: 27 residents and 14 staff, with three deaths connected to the outbreak.
• Sun Pointe Village long-term care in Kelowna has 10 cases: seven residents and three staff.
• Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops:

– Unit 5S has 29 cases: 21 patients and eight staff/other with two deaths connected to the outbreak.

– Unit 6S has 10 patient cases.

– Unit 5N has 12 cases: six patients and six staff/other.