By Roy L Hales Statistics released by the BC Centre for Disease Control show that our area is relatively COVID free. These are found on a series of maps, and a weekly report, released on Thursday, October 8th. However a CHEK news report of two cases at Carihi Secondary School in Campbell River could change this. Island Health has initiated contact tracing to identify any staff and/or students that need to self isolate. One of the maps shows the number of new COVID cases in the previous fourteen days. While there were 19 reported on Vancouver Island, only three were in the region stretching north from Courtenay. Another map gives the total number of cases, since the outbreak began, in Northern, Central and Southern Vancouver Island. There have been 71 in North Island, only two more than last week.

Local Health Areas

The BC Centre for Disease Control releases the cumulative data for every Local Health Area in British Columbia every month. The most recent, which shows the number of cases reported as of September 30th, was updated yesterday. It breaks Northern Vancouver Island into four areas. Comparing the data with previous maps, we find:

• There were 4 new cases in the Comox Valley during September
• Another case was reported in Vancouver Island North, which includes the communities of Port McNeill, Port Hardy and Coal Harbour.
• There were no new cases in Kyuquot, Zeballos and Tahsis, and the rest of Vancouver Island West, since August. A single case has been reported in that region.
• There were no new reports in the Campbell River area, which includes Cortes, Quadra and the rest of the Discovery Islands, since July.  At that point there had been a total of 12 cases since the pandemic entered our area.

This detailed breakdown ends on September 30th and, as mentioned earlier, since then there have been at least two more cases reported somewhere in northern Vancouver Island. These may be the two new cases that CHEK reported in Campbell River.

The rest of British Columbia

According to the  British Columbia COVID 19 Dashboard, there are currently 1,394 infected people in British Columbia. 76 are in hospitals and the remainder are in their homes. There have been 245 deaths since the pandemic arrived. Six of these have been on Vancouver Island. The most recent was a man in his 60s whose death was reported on September 28th. He died in his home, and was not diagnosed with COVID-19 until after his death. While it may be too early to be certain, the number of daily cases reported throughout the province appears to have peaked on September 16th. There were 183 reported that day. However the number of cases on Vancouver Island may be rising. 14 of the 19 most recent new cases were reported last week. The worst day was Sunday, October 4th, when 5 were listed. There are still 13 active cases on the island, but no one is in hospital. Two hundred and four Vancouver Island residents have recovered.