After six COVID-19 cases three weeks ago and 11 cases two weeks ago, the Kamloops Local Health Area jumped to 29 new cases last week.
The dates of those cases are between July 18-24, for the health area that includes Kamloops, Logan Lake, Savona, Tobiano, Chase, Sun Peaks, Barriere and Little Fort, and places in between.
Despite the increase in cases, Kamloops remains on the lower end of new cases on a per-capita basis across the province. By that metric, the local health area with the most cases in B.C. last week was Castlegar (29), followed by the sparsely-populated Kootenay Lake (three). The Central Okanagan (153), Nelson (13), Summerland (six) and Kettle Valley (two) followed in the most per-capita new cases.
The weekly case update by local health area comes after B.C. health officials declared an outbreak in the Kelowna area today, bringing in an indoor mask requirement for the Central Okanagan local health area and advising people not to travel there unless they have been fully vaccinated for more than a week.
The Central Okanagan LHA, where the new mask mandate applies, includes Kelowna, West Kelowna, the Westbank First Nation, Peachland, Lake Country and rural areas of the Central Okanagan Regional District.
Data from the BC Centre for Disease Control shows the daily case rate per 100,000 people in Kelowna area is highest in the city’s downtown (22), followed by Glenmore (21), West Kelowna (13) and Rutland (12).
Health officials said almost one-third of new cases in Kelowna in the past week could not be traced back to where those people were exposed.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says there have been other clusters of cases this month in different regions of Interior Health, but says all of those situations were linked to specific events and that contact tracers were able to follow up with everyone was exposed.
Meanwhile, closer to Kamloops, many rural local health areas reported no new cases in the past week, including Merritt, North Thompson, South Cariboo, 100 Mile and Lillooet.
When it comes to vaccination rates, Kamloops-South has the highest vaccination rate in the southern Interior, with 82 per cent of residents aged 12 older having received a first dose. Kamloops-North has a first-dose vaccination rate of 75 per cent, while the Lower Thompson has a first-dose rate of 72 per cent.
Across all of Interior Health, the highest first-dose rate is the Revelstoke local health area, where 85 per cent of people 12 and older are vaccinated.
More details can be found here on the BCCDC website.
