The BC CDC is reporting 23 new cases of COVID-19 in the Golden area for the week of Aug. 15 to 21, which is amongst the highest case rates in the province.
This crushes the previous record of 16 new cases in a week, which came in the final week of April and is part of what brought the vaccine clinic to Golden at the end of the third wave.
It is the second straight week that Golden has seen a case rate of over 20 cases per population of 100,000.
Over the last month, cases have exploded, when no new cases were reported from July 18-24, to 36 in the last two weeks alone.
Revelstoke is seeing a similar surge, with 24 cases reported in the last week, although they have over double the population of the Golden area.
Regions across Interior Health are seeing some of the highest rates of infection, as the BC CDC reports that the more contagious Delta variant is driving this most recent wave of COVID, accounting for 97 per cent of positive cases.
Across the province, for the week of Aug. 11 to 17, fully vaccinated people accounted for 16.6 per cent of cases and 15 per cent of hospitalizations.
Unvaccinated people accounted for 66.8 per cent of all cases and 77 per cent of hospitalizations, despite being just 26 per cent of the total population.
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The weekly number of hospital admissions has been increasing since week 28 to 32 from 16 to 111 admissions, according to the BC CDC.
The Province is now providing data on likely exposures, with approximately 43 per cent of exposures coming from domestic cases and clusters. Inter-provincial travel and international travel each account for one per cent of exposures.
Those aged 20-29 now make up the most significant portion of cases in the province, at 23 per cent, while those aged 60-69 make up the most hospitalizations (19 per cent) and deaths (25 per cent) since the start of the pandemic.
Golden is reporting 75 per cent double vaccine coverage in those aged 12+ and 84 per cent first dose as of Aug. 23. Across the province, first dose rates have been jumping after the announcement of the vaccine passport,which requires a first dose by Sept. 13 and a second dose by Oct. 24 to enter certain non-essential spaces.
According to the Province, the full list of settings where proof of vaccination will be required is at indoor ticketed sporting events, indoor concerts, indoor theatre/dance/symphony events, restaurants (indoor and patio dining), night clubs, casinos, movie theatres, fitness centres/gyms (excluding youth recreational sport), businesses offering indoor high-intensity group exercise activities, organized indoor events (eg. weddings, parties, conferences, meetings, workshops), and discretionary organized indoor group recreational classes and activities.
Proof of vaccination will not be required to access essential services such as the grocery store and is not expected to impact polling stations for the upcoming election, where Elections Canada will not be requiring employees to be vaccinated.
Maps of new cases reported each week in each local health area can be found on the BC Centre for Disease Control website under BC COVID-19 data. Also available are graphs from the BCCDC Comparisons App showing how each health authority is doing in terms of positive test rates by month.
