Health officials reported nine new cases of COVID-19 in the Interior Health (IH) region over the four reporting periods of the B.C. day long weekend on Tuesday, Aug. 4, bringing the region’s total since the beginning of the pandemic to 377.
A total of 149 cases in the region have now been linked to Kelowna since June 26, according to the health authority. That marks an increase of 12 since Friday, July 31.
The contrast between the increase in Kelowna cases and cases across the region is due to contact tracing identifying the origins of cases that had already been reported by the health authority.
“Cases are linked to Kelowna through ongoing investigations and may not be captured in the Kelowna numbers immediately. (For example), a case reported as new last Wednesday, may have been linked to Kelowna through investigations over the weekend,” said Karl Hardt IH’s media spokesperson.
“This is why the Kelowna increase is higher than the new.”
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On Friday, July 31, the health authority reported that around 60 per cent of the Kelowna-linked cases were considered recovered but specific active or recovered cases for the city will not be released due to the fluidity of such numbers.
One previously epidemiologically-linked case was removed from IH’s case total over the weekend.
The IH region’s hospitalization number grew from zero to one.
Across the province, 146 new cases of the virus were reported over the long weekend. There were no new deaths, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a news conference on Tuesday.
A total of 3,787 people have contracted the virus since late January, with a roughly 86 per cent recovery rate.
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