(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

New restrictions and health orders brought upon the entire province yesterday wasn’t much of a surprise in many parts of the Lower Mainland.

They’ve been under regional restrictions for almost two weeks, since cases started spiking and leading the province — by far — in cases. But to understand why those restrictions were expanded to the rest of the province, look no further than Interior Health where, over a four-week period, cases have jumped by roughly 150 per cent.

Image Credit: Submitted/B.C. Centre for Disease Control

Data from the CDC at the end of October shows 124 cases over two weeks in the Interior Health region as a whole. That jumped to 308 for the two weeks ending Nov. 19.

In the Kootenay subregions, 10 cases were reported until Oct. 29 and seven on Nov. 6. That jumped to 49 this week.

The Okanagan went steadily up from 90 to 225 over the same time period.

Only the Thompson/Cariboo/Shuswap showed some moderation, climbing to 40 cases from 24 then dropping off to 34 this week.

The Northern Health region grew from 54 to 116 over the last four weeks while the normally quiet Vancouver Island Health region went from 15 to 143.

While those numbers are likely why we are under tighter restrictions today, the number of Lower Mainland cases skyrocketed at the same time.

The Fraser Health South subregion is made up of Surrey, Langley, White Rock and Delta and has been the leader in cases for much of the pandemic.

Four weeks ago, it had recorded 1,478 cases in the previous two weeks. This week that jumped to 3,550.

READ MORE: Clarifying all Dr. Henry’s new orders and restrictions for B.C.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry explained what the rise in cases means, Nov. 19.

“Four weeks ago we had about 175 cases a day and I was anxious then,” Dr. Henry said. “Yesterday we had over 700 people in our province affected.

“This increase has been most acute, as we know, in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions of the province, and that is why I put in regional orders about 10 days ago. However, as we’ve been watching so carefully over the last few weeks, it has become apparent that this surge in transmission is happening across the province. We are now seeing increased activity in terms of community transmission, outbreaks and effects on our healthcare system in every health authority in the province. So now we need to do more.”

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