The number of active COVID 19 cases across North Vancouver Island is falling. Island Health reported 33 yesterday, less than half of what there were two weeks ago. There are currently no outbreaks listed at any schools, care homes or restaurants anywhere from the Comox Valley to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

COVID 19 cases in the Comox Valley

More localized statistics from the BC Centre for Disease Control show that the recent surge in North Vancouver Island numbers started in the Comox Valley at the beginning of last month. By the epi-week of February 21st to 27th, there were 44 active cases. Yesterday the BC Centre for Disease Control released the statistics for the epi-week ending on Saturday March 13th. At that point there were only 13 active cases. 

In her weekly COVID update, released yesterday, Comox Valley Regional Chair Jesse Ketler said, “The past few weeks in the Comox Valley showed us how COVID 19 cases can rapidly increase if we do not all follow public health orders.  These orders are meant to keep us safe and protect our healthcare system from getting overloaded until vaccines are widely available. With Spring Break, we are reminding everyone that we need to stick to public health order basics.” 

COVID 19 cases in Greater Campbell River

The numbers started climbing later in the Greater Campbell River area and may have peaked during the epi-week ending on Saturday March 6th. At that point there were 21 cases. The numbers released yesterday, show 18 cases in the Greater Campbell River Area during the epi-week ending on Saturday, March 13th.

On March 12th, the Quadra Island Medical Clinic posted “Today Public Health have informed us of positive cases of Covid-19 on Quadra Island.”*

It is not known if there are also cases on Cortes, or any of the other Discovery Islands.

During the five days not covered by that data, the daily numbers for North Vancouver Island have fallen more than 20%.

COVID 19 Variants

While the number of people infected by COVID variants has risen to a thousand across the province, Cortes Currents has not yet found a source of data specific to our area.  

As of yesterday, no deaths from a variant of the virus have been reported anywhere in British Columbia, 886 people have recovered and there are 130 active cases. Most of these are of the UK variant. 

Once again, this is data for all British Columbia. There do not appear to have been any publicly released reports of the COVID variant situation in North Vancouver Island.

Links of Interest:

• (Cortes Currents) COVID update for March 11
• (Cortes Currents) COVID updates
• Island Health’s COVID-19 dashboard
• (Island Health) How to register for the COVID-19 Vaccine
• (BCCDC) BC COVID Data
• British Columbia COVID-19 data
• (BC Gov News) news releases from the Ministry of Health

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

Cartoon at top of page by Beth Kanter of Cambodia4kids.org via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

*added on March 21, 2021.