(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
December 24, 2020 - 1:06 PM
Interior Health is reporting 70 new cases COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours with no additional deaths.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Interior Health region has had 3,510 cases, according to an Interior Health media release issued today, Dec. 24. Currently there are 675 active cases in isolation.
There are 29 people in the hospital with six in intensive care. The total number of deaths in the health authority remains at 18.
READ MORE: Another death reported at South Okanagan long-term care home
There are currently four outbreaks at long-term care homes in the Interior Health region.
Oliver long-term care home McKinney Place has 75 cases and eight people have died in the outbreak. Village by the Station long-term care in Penticton has eight cases, Mountainview Village long-term care in Kelowna has 15 cases and Heritage Retirement Residence in West Kelowna has 14 cases.
Interior Health said no new data will be released until Tuesday, Dec. 29.
READ MORE: Dr. Bonnie Henry says B.C. is bending the COVID-19 curve
Yesterday, Dec. 23, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said B.C. is bending the COVID-19 case curve.
“We have bent our curve slightly and we are perhaps on a downward trajectory,” she said. “But we have to be cautious. It will not take much to get us back into a dangerous level.”
The peak was reached in mid-November at 800 cases a day, after new restrictions on social interactions were put in place, but has slowly declined since then.
She said the rate of transmission has now dropped below one, meaning that for each person testing positive, on average, they infect only one other person or none at all. That’s the transmission ratio that’s essential to control the spread of COVID-19.
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