The most recent map of the Geographic distribution of COVID cases, shows data in the North Vancouver Island Area up to Saturday, January 30th. At that point there were four (4) cases in the Greater Campbell River Area, which includes Cortes, Quadra and the rest of the the Discovery Islands, one in the Comox Valley and one in Vancouver Island West. 

This shows a significant drop in the number of active cases in the Comox Valley, where there were 9 cases the week before.  At that point there were 3 cases in the Greater Campbell River Area and 2 in Vancouver Island North. 

Vancouver Island

According to the British Columbia COVID 19 Dashboard, there were 273 active COVID 19 cases on Vancouver Island and the associated islands as of 4:30 PM yesterday 

Island Health numbers, also reported yesterday, are lower: 228, of which 167 are in the Central Vancouver Island Health Service Delivery Area, where there are also 9 schools with exposure notices.

There were 7 active cases in the North Vancouver Island Area. 

UK Variant 

The latest BC Centre for Disease Control report, released yesterday, states fourteen people are known to be infected with the so called UK variant, otherwise known as B.1.1.7. Eleven of these travelled abroad and 2 reported contact with travellers. 

Four reports of the UK variant are in Island Health, where the variant was first reported on December 27th, 2020. A CTV News story suggests the infected person entered Canada on an Air Canada flight from London to Vancouver. This individual developed symptoms while in quarantine, at home in Nanaimo.

Fatalities 

1,234 British Columbians have died since the pandemic began. 20 of these on Vancouver Island. 

The latest BC Centre for Disease control report states that “almost three-quarters of all COVID-19 deaths in BC have been associated with care facility outbreaks” (72%) and 96% of these care facility deaths were people 70+ years old.

Links of Interest:

• (Cortes Currents) COVID Update: Greater Campbell River & Vancouver Island
• (Cortes Currents) COVID updates
• Island Health’s COVID-19 dashboard
• (BCCDC) BC COVID Data
• British Columbia COVID-19 data
• (BC Gov News) news releases from the Ministry of Health

Top photo credit: The BC Ferry connecting Cortes and Quadra Islands by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

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