Image Credit: (NIAID-RML via AP)
October 11, 2020 - 7:00 AM
New mapping by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control shows the concentration of COVID-19 cases is mostly in heavily populated areas.
By Sept. 30, the Interior Health region had 533 cases but more than half (283) were in the Central Okanagan, despite being just one-quarter of the region’s roughly 800,000 residents.
The map breaks the province into much smaller areas than those shown on weekly updates.
For example, the Interior Health Region is broken into only four subregions for weekly updates. One covers the entire Okanagan, one includes the Thompson, Cariboo and Shuswap and there are two for the Kootenays.
The monthly updates break the Interior Health Region into more than 30 “local health regions.”
Image Credit: Submitted/B.C.Centre for Disease Control
It shows that the Kamloops region – stretching from Logan Lake to the north of Barrier and west to Chase – had 82 cases since January.
The Vernon health region, which includes Coldstream and Lumby but not Armstrong, had 27 cases while Penticton, which includes Naramata but not Summerland or Oliver, had 11 cases, as did the South Okanagan.
Of course, that pales in comparison with the Lower Mainland where the Surrey health region recorded 1,814 cases, Abbotsford 655, Burnaby 570 and North Vancouver 406. Vancouver is broken down into six health regions with a total of 2,407 cases.
The general pattern of high concentration of cases in larger urban centres falls apart on Vancouver Island.
Greater Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula regions had a total of 65 cases. In contrast, the more rural Vancouver Island North region had 31 cases.
Image Credit: Submitted/B.C.Centre for Disease Control
When it comes to what’s happened over the past two weeks (from Sept. 25 to Oct. 8), there were 34 new cases in the Interior Health region. Twenty of those were in the Okanagan while there were 11 in the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap.
During that same time period, there were 1,425 new cases in B.C.
Of those, 542 were in the Fraser South region, 367 in Vancouver and 160 in Fraser North.
There were only 19 new cases on Vancouver Island and 45 in the Northern Health region.
The maps and other COVID-19 data can be viewed here.
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