D'Arcy McGee: Northern Health and Northwest BC head into summer with declining COVID reports

Monday, July 4, 2022

Northern Health and Northwest BC head into summer with declining COVID reports

BC CDC Data for the week of June 19-25

While it may seem that anecdotally, everyone in the Northwest seems to know someone who has tested positive for COVID in recent weeks.

Officially, at least as the BC CDC weekly reports are concerned, the declines in cases reported in the spring continue on the decline into the summer.

This week's report for the period of June 19 -25 which was released just prior to the Canada Day Weekend saw a large swath of the Northwest marking 0 cases to report.

Among those communities were Upper Skeena, Nisga'a, Snow Country-Stikine, Bella Coola Valley, Central Coast, Smithers and Burns Lake which all recorded no cases of COVID for the survey period.

The numbers for all other regions of the Northwest are in single digits, with Prince Rupert k among the ranks with a count of two, as is the case in Kitimat, Terrace and Haida Gwaii

The highest numbers listed in Northern British Columbia's continue to come from its largest community, with Prince George recording a case count of 14 in the period which is a decrease of 15 in case reports from last week.

The full review across the region for the week of June 19-25 from the BC CDC looks as follows:

Terrace -- 2 cases

Kitimat -- 2 cases

Haida Gwaii -- 2 cases

Prince Rupert -- 2 cases
Nechako -- 1 case

Central Coast -- 0 cases

Nisga'a Region -- 0 cases

Bella Coola Valley -- 0 cases

Burns Lake -- 0 cases
Upper Skeena -- 0 cases

Snow Country-Stikine-Telegraph Creek -- 0 cases

The Provincial Data Review looks as follows:

620 New Cases (down 22 from last week), with 273 hospitalized (same as last week), 32 in Critical Care (an increase of 4 from a week ago) and 17 new deaths from COVID reported (a decline from a week ao).

The total number of deaths in BC since the start of the coronavirus is 3,747 to date.

There have been 374,594 cases of COVID recorded in the province since the arrival of the pandemic

As of June 30 the Province had distributed 12,791,484 first, second or booster shots of the COVID Vaccine, with a fourth booster program for specific groups underway.

Thursday's provincial report lists 41 new cases of COVID for the Northern Health region for the reporting week, a decline from seven days ago.

That makes for a total of 30,414 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic.

Of note again, this week is the decline in hospitalizations and those in critical care.

For the Northern Health Region in total as of Thursday, 7 patients are listed as in hospital (down 2 from last week) , with two noted as in Critical Care ( a decline from 4 a week ago) , the Northern Health region recorded 0 deaths this week.

The Northern Health total of deaths attributed to COVID is listed as 357 since the start of the pandemic.

The breakdown of hospitalizations by community in the Northern Health region is not included in the data release information.