Active COVID-19 cases in Delta down by half

There were half as many active COVID-19 cases in Delta last week than the week before.

Every Wednesday, the BC Centre for Disease Control releases a map showing the geographic distribution of COVID-19 cases by local health area (LHA) of residence. The latest weekly map shows Delta had 24 cases for the week of June 6 to 12, 27 fewer than the week previous.

Delta’s case total has fallen for eight of the last nine weeks, only adding 28 cases the week ending May 1. Previous to that, the numbers had been climbing for 10 straight weeks before hitting a record high of 262 the week ending April 10.

Last week’s total marked the lowest number of active COVID-19 cases in Delta since health officials began releasing city-level data in December.

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The overall number of active cases in the Fraser Health region decreased for the eight straight week to 503, down 236 from the week previous. Last week was also the second week in a row — and second time ever — that the weekly total for the region was below 1,000 since the BC CDC began releasing the weekly LHA maps in December of last year.

Eleven of the 13 local health areas in the Fraser Health region saw decreases from the previous week, most notably in Surrey (172, down 91) and Abbotsford (73, down 42).

Agassiz-Harrison added five new cases to the two it gained the week before, bringing the total active cases to seven, while Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows added six to bring its total to 50.

According to data shared on the BC CDC’s COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard, Delta had an overall daily average of three new cases per 100,000 people for the week of June 8-14, down from six the week before.

Broken down by neighbourhood, that’s three cases per 100,000 people North Delta (down from 10 the previous week), none for Ladner (down from one the previous week) and five for Tsawwassen (up from one the previous week).

Delta’s total case count represented two per cent of all cases reported in B.C. that week, down from four per cent the week before. Delta is also home to two per cent of the province’s population.

The overall test positivity rate in Delta for the week of June 8-14 was three per cent (down from four per cent from the week before), but the rates varied between Delta’s three community health service areas (CHSAs).

North Delta still had the highest rate (four per cent, down from eight the week before), while Ladner had the lowest rate (zero per cent, unchanged from the week before). Tsawwassen, which is comprised of both the Delta community and the Tsawwassen First Nation, had a rate of three per cent, up from one per cent from the week before.

The positivity rate in North Delta was lower when only looking at public tests — three per cent, down from nine the week before — but the same for Delta as a whole — three per cent, down from five. Ladner had a rate of one per cent (up from zero), while Tsawwassen had a rate of four per cent (up from one).

The dashboard also shows breakdowns of vaccine coverage across the CHSAs by age: 12+, 18+ and 50+.

As of June 14, 81 per cent of adults aged 18 and over in Delta have received at least their first does of vaccine, unchanged from the week before. Broken down by CHSA, that is 79 per cent in North Delta and 83 per cent in both Ladner and Tsawwassen. CHSA-level rates were all unchanged from the week before.

For adults 50 and over, vaccine coverage was 88 per cent in North Delta (up from 87 per cent the week before), 90 per cent in Ladner (up from 89) and 89 per cent in Tsawwassen (up from 88 the week before). Overall, coverage in Delta was 89 per cent (up from 88).

With those aged 12-17 included, the overall rate for Delta was 81 per cent (up from 79). Broken down by CHSA, that is 79 per cent in North Delta (up from 77) and 83 per cent for both Ladner and Tsawwassen (up from 81).

On June 7, the BC CDC posted an updated map showing total cumulative cases by local health area through to the end of May. The map shows there were a total of 4,815 COVID-19 cases in Delta through to May 31, meaning there were 488 new cases last month, compared to 990 in April and 614 in March.

The map also shows there were 4,012 new cases in Surrey in May, compared to 7,043 in April and 4,406 in March, and 8,913 new cases across the Fraser Health region, compared to 17,086 in April and 10,554 in March. Vancouver Coastal Health, meanwhile, had 2,833 new cases in May, compared to 7,497 in April and 5,726 in March.

As of Thursday (June 17), there were no outbreaks at any Delta long-term care, assisted living or independent living facilities, no public exposure notifications, and no Delta businesses had been temporarily closed due to COVID-19 spread among workers.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced April 8 that workplaces with three or more people who have COVID-19 and likely transmission in the workplace will be ordered to close, unless it is in the overriding public interest to keep it open. The closure generally last for 10 days unless otherwise determined by health officials.

Meanwhile, Fraser Health’s website listed exposures at only two Delta schools as of Thursday morning: Gray Elementary (June 9 and 10) and South Park Elementary (June 7, 8, 9 and 11). The previous two Thursdays (June 3 and 10) there were four listed exposures, compared to 13 the week of May 27.

Fraser Health defines exposure as “a single person with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection who attended school during their infectious period.” Two or more individuals is defined as a cluster, while an outbreak describes a situation involving “multiple individuals with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infections when transmission is likely widespread within the school setting.”

The latest COVID data came as health officials reported 113 new COVID-19 cases in the province over the past 24 hours — 51 of them in the Fraser Health region — as numbers remained stable over the past five days.

Wednesday’s cases brought the total number of active cases in B.C. to 1,454, with four new deaths. B.C. has seen a total of 146,674 cases and 1,738 deaths since the pandemic began.

THE LATEST: B.C. records 113 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, 4 deaths (June 16, 2021)

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North Delta Reporter