The Interior Health (IH) region has 43 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death due to the virus, according to BC Centre for Disease Control data on Thursday, April 29.
This brings the total number of cases in the region to 10,877 since the pandemic began, with 621 active cases. Currently, there are 34 individuals in the hospital from IH, with 18 in intensive care.
The total number of deaths in the region due to the virus is now at 131.
Provincial health officers announced that throughout B.C., there are a total of 853 cases on April 29, with 503 people hospitalized due to the virus. Most of the province’s cases continue to be from the Lower Mainland.
IH provided the following update on current outbreaks in the region:
- Cottonwoods Care Centre long-term care in Kelowna has 29 cases: 26 residents and three staff, with two deaths connected to the outbreak.
- Sandalwood Retirement Resort independent living in Kelowna has 26 cases: 24 residents and two staff, with one death connected to the outbreak.
- Orchard Haven long-term care in Keremeos has two cases: one resident and one staff.
- Spring Valley long-term care in Kelowna has 17 cases: 15 residents and two staff.
IH said that asymptomatic testing has been ongoing since Monday at Kelowna’s Spring Valley long-term care, which is how the number of cases jumped from two to 17 in the span of four days.
“The majority of cases are asymptomatic or mild,” IH said in a statement regarding the Spring Valley outbreak.
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