Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix issued a joint written statement urging British Columbians to stay home during the Family Day long weekend and Lunar New Year approach:
Stay home: risks remain high
“The risks from COVID-19 remain high for all of us, especially with the variants of concern, which is why staying in our local community and avoiding any unnecessary travel is so important right now. This weekend is the weekend to stay home – to show your family and friends you care by not giving COVID-19 the opportunity to spread.”
There has been no update on the spread of the UK variant, since four cases were reported on Vancouver Island a week ago.
None of these were in the northern half of Vancouver Island and associated islands.
The Greater Campbell River Health Area
The BC Centre for Disease Control released geographic statistics, on the spread of COVID 19 within specific local health areas.
During the week ending on Saturday, February 6, there were two (2) active cases in the Greater Campbell River Health Area, which includes Campbell River, Sayward, and the Discovery Islands.
There were also four cases in the Comox Valley and one in Vancouver Island North.
On Sunday February 7th, Loblaws confirmed that one of the employees at the Real Canadian Superstore in Campbell River had tested positive. The employee had not worked since the previous Wednesday.
Within Island Health
The Island Health COVID-19 Dashboard has more up to date information for the whole of North Vancouver Island, which stretches north from Courtenay. There were 11 active cases as of 4:30 PM yesterday, February 10.
There are currently 269 active cases within Island Health, 21 of these are in hospitals and 8 in critical care. 1,625 people have recovered since the pandemic began and 20 have died.
Links of interest:
- (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: COVID-19 safety measures in an office building by Chad Davis 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.