The province provided a COVID-19 update with updated case numbers from Friday, July 17 through Monday, July 20. (BC Government Flickr)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

BIG JUMP

Six additional Island COVID-19 cases confirmed by province, over 100 new cases across B.C.

Jul 20, 2020 | 3:20 PM

NANAIMO — The number of active cases of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island has doubled over the course of one weekend.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced six new active cases of COVID-19 arose over the weekend in the Island Health region. The cases were detected from Friday, July 17 to Monday, July 20.

Since the start of the pandemic, 142 people have tested positive in the Island Health region with ten currently considered active.

Overall, 102 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the province since Friday including several epi-linked cases.

It brings the total number of cases active in B.C. to 253 including 16 people in hospital with four in ICU. Overall 3,300 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in British Columbia.

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Dr. Henry said 60 of the new cases are related to parties and gatherings in the Kelowna area where people from elsewhere in B.C. attended before returning home.

Most of the new cases were also people in their 20s and 30s according to Dr. Henry.

“We managed to flatten that curve but it continues to grow, have sporadic transmission events in the community and most concerning in the last week and a half we have seen a growth in the number of cases, particularly in young people.”

No new deaths were attributed to COVID-19 over the weekend.

Dr. Henry added the increase in cases is not unexpected as B.C. moved into phase three of its restart plan at the start of July.

“We’re having increased connections with people in the community…we knew that would happen as we moved into this phase of our restart here in B.C. The challenge now is we are now no longer having safe connections and that is what is spreading this virus.”

While providing another epidemiological look at COVID-19, Dr. Henry said we are currently between 65 and 75 per cent of normal interactions when compared to pre-COVID levels.

Public health data suggests that level of interaction will result in an increase in active cases, while returning to 50 per cent or lower would again flatten or lower the curve.

Increasing interactions to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels would result in a substantial increase in cases similar to what has been seen in the United States over recent weeks.

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