Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry with Health Minister Adrian Dix in the background
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Government of B.C.
July 29, 2020 - 5:48 PM
Expect to see a significantly higher number of Kelowna COVID-19 cases during the province's pandemic updates.
"Until now Interior Health has defined the number of cases associated with what we called the Kelowna cluster to cases connected directly to specific events and businesses downtown in early July and over the Canada Day holiday," reads an email from Interior Health.
Starting tomorrow, IH’s medical health officers will begin reporting the number of cases occurring across Kelowna, not just cases they could confirm were associated with those early July events.
"This Kelowna cluster has shifted into more broad community transmission beyond the city's downtown and into other parts of the Okanagan. We do not want to unnecessarily alarm the public, but felt it was important to clearly show how COVID-19 is circulating throughout the region," reads the email.
Today, July 29, approximately 40 new cases are being added to the Kelowna community outbreak count, bringing the total to 126.
Several of these cases were identified over the past few weeks and were just not included in the total number until now, the health authority said in an email. So, the number reported isn't necessarily new cases, just a new way of reporting what is happening.
Interior Health reported two fewer cases of COVID-19 cases today, which the health authority said is a data correction from two cases with primary residences in other jurisdictions were included in previous health authority totals.
There have been no new cases today in the health authority, no new cases at Kelowna General Hospital and there are still no hospitalized cases currently in Interior Health.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Shortly after publication of this story, Interior Health said they sent the information in error and these numbers have not yet been confirmed.
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