According to a November 9th report from Island Health, there are now 8 active COVID cases in that part of Vancouver Island stretching north from Courtenay and the Comox Valley. While the number is trivial – most of us probably haven’t even seen one of those eight people – the trajectory is not.

It wasn’t so long ago that the reports were of one to three new cases in a week. 

Data for the Campbell River Health Area

The BC Centre Disease Control releases statistics for the Campbell River Health Area on a monthly basis. The most current report displays data to the end of September, at which point there were not any new cases since July. We know that at least two people in Campbell River, itself, caught the virus since then. The statistics up until the end of October should be released this week. 

Vancouver Island

There is no cause for panic. There are currently only 39 confirmed active cases of COVID on Vancouver island and none of them are in the hospital or ICU.

Second wave more than three times worse

However: the number of active cases province wide has grown to 4,891. According to the British Columbia COVID situation report, the first wave peaked in mid March, at which point there were 9 cases for every 100,000 people in the province. As of the end of October, the percentage of infected people has more than tripled.

The BCCDC situation report report for this period shows that while 53% of the people afflicted by COVID were between 20 and 39 years of age, there were no fatalities. The vast majority of deaths (89%) and 42% of the people hospitalized were at least 70 years old – though their age group made up only 9% of the cases that tested positive.

Top illustration: Adapted form the British Columbia COVID 19 Dashboard

This program was funded by a grant from the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Government of Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative.