The Medical Health Officer for Kamloops says she’s very happy to see the number of new cases in the area trend downwards.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Dr. Carol Fenton says one of the reasons for that decline in new cases is the uptake in vaccines in the area.

“We know that from the changes that we have seen in specific high risk areas where we have really high vaccination rates like long term care,” she said. “Its made a huge difference there, but of course, the warm weather and getting outside also definitely helps.”

“My only area of concern that we’re looking at right now is getting the youth and the young adults vaccinated. We’re seeing a good amount of turnout, but we could see higher and they’re going to be the population that brings us over the finish line.”

In the Kamloops area, about 70 per cent of people over the age of 18 have gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. That number increases to 82 per cent when you only consider people over the age of 50 who have been vaccinated.

“You know I’m finding myself looking forward to the updates, that’s good news, “Fenton added. “It’s really hard to attribute changes when we’re doing so many different things to stop the spread of COVID, but certainly vaccines are making a huge impact.”

The latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control shows just 20 cases in the Kamloops Local Health Area during the week of May 23 to May 29 – the fifth straight week where new COVID-19 cases have been declining in the area.

Travel restrictions have helped: IHA top doctor

The top doctor in Interior Health, Dr. Albert de Villiers, says among other things travel restrictions helped with the gradual decline in COVID-19 cases in the region over the past few weeks.

“We’ve also had limited cases that were imported from Alberta side as well, not as many as we anticipated. Its mostly been slowly going down,” he said. “If you look at our numbers from about a month ago, we are probably about a half to even a third off of where we were, so it is definitely going down.”

De Villiers though is still urging people to be careful even though the province released its plans for a gradual return to normal.

“I think our rate is coming down, its little bit slower, it looks like than the rest of the province,” he said. “When I look at the epidemiology, there is no specific pinpoint thing that we can say, oh its people in this community that does this wrong and that’s why we’ve got this.”

Vaccines are the solution to ending the pandemic: Mayor Ken Christian

Speaking during this week’s city council meeting, Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian said vaccines are the solution to ending the pandemic and to economic recovery.

“As I said to Interior Health last week, I believe we have probably a five-week window where people where still be focused on this pandemic,” he said. “Because, with that restart plan, there’s a sentiment that this is over. Well it’s not over.”

As of yesterday, Interior Health said there were 69,642 people in Kamloops who had been vaccinated with at least one dose. There were another 6,237 second doses administered. Across B.C., 72 per cent of all adults and 69 per cent of people 12 and older have gotten their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Christian though is still concerned that there could be COVID outbreaks of the virus in the fall especially with what he calls the “under-vaccinated” population when people begin to spend more time indoors.

“We need to ensure that those individuals, particularly in the 20-to-40 age bracket, are encouraged to register, to book an appointment and to get vaccinated,” Christian added.

One week later in #Kamloops

Very little COVID:
20 COVID + humans for the week

Very lots vaccines:
82% 50+ at least one shot
70% 18+ “#journey2immunity #party2immunity https://t.co/ln8QAIitm8

— Elizabeth Parfitt MD (@parsnipper) June 3, 2021