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August 27, 2020 - 4:37 PM
There were 209 cases of COVID-19 in the Central Okanagan so far this year up to the end of July — more than half of all the cases recorded in the Interior Health region.
A map showing more detailed information on where cases occurred was posted today, Aug. 27, on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s website.
The Central Okanagan is home to only about one quarter of Interior Health’s total population of about 800,000 people.
The map shows there were 53 cases in Kamloops and 21 in Vernon. It doesn’t specify how many were in Penticton but shows three areas south of the Central Okanagan with a total of 11 cases.
“Early on we gave broader geographic areas because there were such small numbers that people would identify that somebody had travelled to a certain area or come back from a cruise ship, for example,” Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her COVID-19 update today after being asked why such detailed information was being given out now after she refused doing so earlier in the pandemic.
Now there is enough data spread over a longer period of time that more information can be released without compromising confidentiality, she said.
In the rest of the Interior, case numbers were limited. There were 11 in Cranbrook/Fernie, six in the Nelson area and five in Revelstoke/Golden. The Shuswap isn’t identified by name but there were 10 cases in three regions north of Vernon and east of Kamloops. Merritt had six cases.
All those number pale in comparison with the COVID-19 hot spots in the Lower Mainland.
Vancouver is broken into six sub-regions with a total of 668 cases. There were 521 in Surrey, 454 in Abbotsford and 205 in North Vancouver.
Greater Victoria, on the other hand, only had 29 cases with another 11 on the Saanich Peninsula. In the North, Prince George led the way with 33 cases.
The map can be viewed here.
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