A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared in the Central Okanagan – which includes Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, and Peachland and other nearby communities – because of a recent spike in cases.

Masks will be mandatory in indoor public spaces once again, as of midnight, with travel also being discouraged into and out of the Central Okanagan unless you are fully immunized.

B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, and Health Minister Adrian Dix made the announcement during a last-minute news conference Wednesday. They were joined by Interior Health’s Interim Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Sue Pollock.

Officials said there were 240 cases in the region during the past week, with Dix noting half of B.C.’s COVID-19 cases in the past week have been in the Central Okanagan. As of today, there are 503 active cases in Interior Health out of a total of 909 active cases province-wide.

“We are seeing this mostly in young people and we know they have had less access to the vaccine. We are seeing transmission in the Delta variant which we know is more transmissible,” Dr. Henry said.

“We still need to take measures in those areas where we are seeing higher levels of transmission. Where we are seeing transmission is in pockets of people who are not immunized or under-immunized.”

Pollock notes about half of the COVID cases in the Central Okanagan are linked to social gatherings, workplaces, and private households.

“However for about 30 per cent of the cases we actually are not able to determine where the individual may have been exposed and that really speaks to what’s happening here. We do have more wider spread of community transmission happening,” she said.

“So I don’t have a particular party or one event that we’re linking majority of cases to, but certainly both social gatherings and private gatherings are one factor here.”

Henry says those 240 cases are all Central Okanagan residents, though there have been other cases among people who visited Kelowna this month and brought the virus home with them.

“We have seen some people in the Central Okanagan travelling to the Island, travelling to other places and bringing COVID with them. And vice versa,” she said.

“This is very much local transmission and those are some of the things we look at when determining whether we need to take additional measures and whether there is local transmission happening between people in the community and that is the case right now.”

Data from the government showed Interior Health had the highest percentage of unvaccinated people at 26.2 per cent, higher than the provincewide figure of 19.6 per cent.

Its why health officials also announced plans to speed up COVID-19 vaccine access in the region by reducing the interval between first and second doses to 28 days – or four weeks – instead of the current seven weeks.

Currently, 74.2 per cent of eligible IH residents have had one dose, and 60 per cent are fully vaccinated. The COVID test positivity rate in Interior Health has soared to 6.8 per cent up from about three per cent a week ago.

“We need to get that two and beyond 80 per cent. We know with the new variants, and we have cases in this current situation linked to the Delta Variant, that these new variants are more transmissible, and its critical to have two doses of vaccine,” Pollock added.

B.C. is in Step 3 of its COVID Restart Plan, which came into effect on July 1.

Bars, nightclubs, and fitness centres in the Central Okanagan will be allowed to remain open for now though officials said they’ll be reinforcing the rules that are in place including group size limits. Liquor service can continue until closing time though people are being reminded they should not be socializing between tables.

For a full list of COVID restrictions in the Central Okanagan, go here.

– With files from Colton Davies