A leading virologist in B.C. says he’s not surprised by a major COVID outbreak gripping Royal Inland Hospital and Ponderosa Lodge.

It comes as three-dozen cases of COVID are being reported at RIH and the associated extended care facility.

Doctor Brian Conway with the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Center says, while unfortunate, the outbreak shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

“Based on modeling and wastewater testing, it’s been estimated that two per cent of the population of British Columbia right now is probably carrying COVID and it’s potentially infectious.”

However, he says that doesn’t mean health authorities need to hit the panic button.

“We need to reassure ourselves that it is highly, highly unlikely that any of the public health measures to characterize the first part of the pandemic will need to be put back in place. That said, it is important to remember that COVID, in particular, is still around.”

Conway explains that the current COVID variants making the rounds are causing far fewer serious cases, which he attributes to a high vaccination rate.

“It’s almost certain this is a new virus. It continues to evolve. There were a couple of new strains that were described over the past week, where they are spreading out fast, which severity of disease they will cause is not clear,” he said.

Interior Health confirmed 10 cases in the Gaglardi Tower, 11 in the South Tower, and 15 cases of COVID-19 on the first floor of Ponderosa Lodge.

No deaths have been reported.

RSV vaccine expected to roll out this fall, aimed at protecting against ‘tri-demic’

A vaccine, protecting against RSV, is expected to roll out this fall.

That is according to Doctor Brian Conway with the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Center who says it will be the first year people can get vaccinations to protect themselves against the ‘tri-demic.’

“I fully expect that the vaccine that will be available to us all in the fall will be a new vaccine adapted to the streams that we will find to be circulating over the summer,” he said. “They will continue to evolve and we need to keep our guard up in that respect.”

Viral infections part of the so called tri-demic, as Conway explains, are RSV, influenza, and COVID-19; which first became a worry back in October, as RSV was first making a significant appearance in a couple of years.

“We were worried… that (RSV) along with the influenza virus along with COVID virus — would overwhelm us,” said Conway.

While it was avoided, Conway suggests they are working to protect against a looming concern of tri-demic retuning.

“Going forward, people in the field are really trying hard to design strategies that will help us be more proactive at this tri-demic of these three viral infections that we expect to be back every year.”

The addition of the RSV vaccine is on top of the COVID-19 vaccine and influenza vaccine.

Conway adds there are treatments that work against COVID-19 and influenza if they are given within the first several days of infection.