By Roy L Hales
Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix issued a joint written statement urging British Columbians to stay home during the Family Day long weekend and Lunar New Year approach.
“The risks from COVID-19 remain high for all of us, especially with the variants of concern, which is why staying in our local community and avoiding any unnecessary travel is so important right now. This weekend is the weekend to stay home – to show your family and friends you care by not giving COVID-19 the opportunity to spread," they said.
Active cases on Vancouver Island during the week of Jan 31 to Feb 6, 2021. Photo courtesy of BC Centre for Disease Control.
There has been no update on the spread of the UK variant, since four cases were reported on Vancouver Island a week ago.
None of these were in the northern half of Vancouver Island and associated islands.
Prof Sharon Peacock told the BBC’s Newscast podcast the new variant first reported in the southeast county of Kent has “swept the country” and “it’s going to sweep the world, in all probability”. Photo above shows downtown Maidstone, Kent, last August. Photo by John K Thorne via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)
The Greater Campbell River Health Area
The BC Centre for Disease Control released geographic statistics, on the spread of COVID-19 within specific local health areas.
During the week ending on Saturday, Feb. 6, there were two active cases in the Greater Campbell River Health Area, which includes Campbell River, Sayward, and the Discovery Islands.
There were also four cases in the Comox Valley and one in Vancouver Island North.
On Sunday, Feb. 7, Loblaws confirmed that one of the employees at the Real Canadian Superstore in Campbell River had tested positive. The employee had not worked since the previous Wednesday.
Taken form the BC COVID-19 Dashboard. Photo courtesy of the BC government.
The Island Health COVID-19 Dashboard has more up to date information for the whole of North Vancouver Island, which stretches north from Courtenay. There were 11 active cases as of 4:30 p.m. yesterday, Feb. 10.
There are currently 269 active cases within Island Health, 21 of these are in hospitals and 8 in critical care.
1,625 people have recovered since the pandemic began and 20 have died.