The COVID-19 outbreak at multiple Teck locations in the Elk Valley has been declared over.
In a release on Friday Jan. 22, Interior Health (IH) reported that the outbreak declared on December 15, 2020 was over, a little over a month after it was first reported.
In total, 48 cases were linked to three Teck sites in the Elk Valley near Elkford and Sparwood – the water treatment facility under construction near Fording River Operations, Fording River Operations itself, and Elkview Operations.
READ MORE: Numbers rise at Teck operations: IH declares outbreak
“Cases have been identified with residences in multiple jurisdictions, including Interior Health, Vancouver Island Health, Alberta, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland,” said IH in the release.
Only 16 of the 48 cases linked to the outbreak were residents of Interior Health.
The health authority said that in light of “recent increased activity in the area”, it was continuing to monitor for new COVID-19 cases at Teck facilities and across the valley.
Earlier in the week, a spike in COVID-19 numbers had been spotlighted by the Elk Valley Hospital’s top doctor, who had remarked that the number of test results returning as positive were as high as one-in-five, but IH walked back those numbers a day later, saying the rate of positivity was between 10 and 12 per cent.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s (BCCDC) latest data for the Fernie Health Area (which includes all the Elk Valley) reported there were 20 new cases in the area between Jan. 10 and Jan. 16, but that data does not include any data from this week.
READ MORE: BCCDC reports 20 new COVID cases in Fernie health area last week
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