By Roy L Hales

The number of active COVID-19 cases across North Vancouver Island is falling. Island Health reported 33 March 17, less than half of what there were two weeks ago. There are currently no outbreaks listed at any schools, care homes or restaurants anywhere from the Comox Valley to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

More localized statistics from the BC Centre for Disease Control show that the recent surge in North Vancouver Island numbers started in the Comox Valley at the beginning of last month. By the epi-week of Feb. 21-27, there were 44 active cases. On March 17, the BC Centre for Disease Control released the statistics for the epi-week ending on Saturday, March 13. At that point, there were only 13 active cases.

“The past few weeks in the Comox Valley showed us how COVID-19 cases can rapidly increase if we do not all follow public health orders.  These orders are meant to keep us safe and protect our healthcare system from getting overloaded until vaccines are widely available. With Spring Break, we are reminding everyone that we need to stick to public health order basics, said Comox Valley Regional Chair Jesse Ketler in her weekly COVID-19 update, released yesterday.

Data on active cases on Vancouver Island from Island Health. Chart by Roy L Hales.

Active COVID-19 cases in Greater Campbell River

The numbers started climbing later in the Greater Campbell River area and may have peaked during the epi-week ending on Saturday, March 6. At that point, there were 21 cases. The numbers released yesterday, show 18 cases in the Greater Campbell River Area during the epi-week ending on Saturday, March 13.

It is not known if any of these cases were on Cortes, Quadra or any of the other Discovery Islands.

During the five days not covered by that data, the daily numbers for North Vancouver Island have fallen more than 20 per cent.

Data for epi-weeks taken from the BC Centre for Disease Control. Chart by Roy L Hales.

COVID-19 Variants

While the number of people infected by COVID variants has risen to a thousand across the province, Cortes Currents has not yet found a source of data specific to our area.

As of yesterday, no deaths from a variant of the virus have been reported anywhere in British Columbia, 886 people have recovered and there are 130 active cases. Most of these are of the UK variant.

Once again, this is data for all British Columbia. There do not appear to have been any publicly released reports of the COVID variant situation in North Vancouver Island.