Finally after two and half months, there is some welcome news for the North Coast, with today's information release from BC CDC showing a drop of thirty three cases of COVID in this region from one week ago.
Today's report shows that Prince Rupert's totals for the week of March 21-27, listed at 80 reported positive cases of the coronavirus.
A small sign, perhaps that the community may finally be getting a hold on the expansive outbreak of the last two months.
For much of the last six weeks, Prince Rupert results have remained stubbornly high, which led to one of the factors in the decision to host the community wide vaccination clinic earlier this month.
However while signs appear positive, earlier this week, the North Coast took note of a reminder that the challenges remain.
That as Northern Health announced an outbreak at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital, reinforcing the message that we need to continue to be aware of the health measures in place for the province.
For the rest of the Northwest, this week provides good news of declines in case counts across the region, with no increases to be found in any community west of Prince George.
Across the remainder of the Northwest, the cases reported from March 21 to 27 were as follows.
Terrace -- 20
Upper Skeena -- 17
Kitimat -- 13
Smithers -- 8
Nisga'a Region -- 7
Haida Gwaii -- 5
Burns Lake -- 4
Bella Coola Valley -- 1
The Central Coast, Snow Country-Stikine-Telegraph and Nechako regions all have reported no cases this week from the data review.
Other charts and information from the BC CDC can be explored here.
The totals today, moving us above the 1K mark that we have been flirting with for weeks now, with over 87 percent of the cases coming from the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions.
The daily review for Wednesday came by way of a statement from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.
“Today, we are reporting 1,013 new cases, including six cases, for a total of 100,048 cases in British Columbia.
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| BC CDC Data for BC For March 31 2021 |
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| BC CDC Data for the Northern Health Region For March 31 2021 |
Federal Government site
British Columbia Government site
The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.
More from Northern Health can be reviewed here
You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.
Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, those past advisories can be reviewed here.
For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee
COVID it appears has provided for a bit of a challenge when it comes to the roll out of CityWest's Fibre to Home project, with the City of Prince Rupert owned and operated communication company now advising that they hope to see 60 percent of the city wired up by this fall.
The 10 million dollar project was introduced in 2017, launched in 2018 and CityWest officials last reported that the project had hoped to reach fifty percent coverage by the end of 2019.
With CityWest having announced a number of out of town fibre projects over the course of the last few months, the North Coast Review contacted Chris Armstrong from CityWest for an update on the local work of much interest to city residents.
In reply, the Director of Sales and Marketing observed that the pace slowed down locally last year owing to COVID, with the company looking to have another sector of the city, focused on the Hays Cove Circle area of the city, done by the fall.
A goal which if achieved would make for 60 percent coverage to that point for the city.
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| The area from Hays Cove Circle to McBride is said to be next up for CityWest's Fibre to Home project in Prince Rupert |
Towards the overall Fibre to Home project Mr. Armstrong observed:
'We’re looking to one day having fibre to the home all over Prince Rupert, and all our customers today can access fast and reliable Internet, TV, and phone services."
From the map provided at the time of the 2019 update, once the Hays Cove/Fifth East region is complete, the areas that would remain for the Fibre project would include connecting the downtown area, the Crestview/Prince Rupert Boulevard area, as well as the Sloan/Summit/Kootneay area on the west side of the city.
You can review some of the past notes on the Fibre to Home project from our notes below:
February 19, 2019 -- CityWest eyes fifty percent coverage of Prince Rupert by year end for Fibre to Home expansion project
June 5, 2018 -- CityWest provides Fibre to home timeline report for Prince Rupert
May 31, 2017 -- CityWest announces 10 million dollar investment in fibre infrastructure set for Prince Rupert
With the residents of Prince Rupert owners of CityWest, City Council may want to return to the days of past and ask for some regular updates from the communication company to keep its investors up to date.
Providing a forum at a public Council session for company officials, even if by Zoom if necessary, to speak to some of the latest plans for the city owned company.
Sharing further details on the projects ahead for far flung areas of the Northwest and Coastal BC; as well as to the more nearby reaches of the city whether downtown, west-side or east-side.
The Search engine from the CityWest website offers a few company themes on Fibre to Home to explore
More notes on CityWest can be reviewed from our archive page here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
Members of the Prince Rupert School Board of Education hosted an online Budget Consultation session on Monday, providing a wide ranging review of the Budget process so far, as well as to share some of the feedback that they have received from the public to this point of their work on the financial planning for 2021-2022.
SD52 has provided the full overview of the Monday presentation, posted to the District website, which outlines many of the elements covered during the course of the session this week.
The opening of their review included a look at the plans ahead over the next five years, with notes on teacher recruitment, some forward momentum towards a new middle school and a look at the Focus of Education that the Board has adopted, a five point program towards learning as well as some of their Frameworks towards enhanced learning.
With another list of revisions to the Public Health Orders announced on Monday, the provincial restaurant industry has been handed another challenge from a year of challenges, with dining in currently not allowed as part of the roll out of measures this week.
The new measures listed by Doctor Bonnie Henry on Monday however do allow for dining on patios or by way of take out.
And to help remind residents of the North Coast of that allowance, the Prince Rupert/Port Edward Chamber of Commerce has taken to its Social Media page to urge residents to keep local dining options in their meal planning sharing some of their favourite stops as they prepare to take advantage of the varied menus found in town by way of Take Out.
Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain has also gotten behind the campaign to create awareness of local restaurants and the need to step up to help them out. Using his Civic Facebook page to share the word and also to ask residents to share their favourite dining spots with the community.
More notes related to the Prince Rupert and area business community can be found from our archive page here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
