There were eight confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the Sunshine Coast the last week of March, while Howe Sound remains the hotspot in the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) region.
The eight cases from March 28 to April 3 were reported by the BC Centre for Disease Control on Thursday. The week before, seven cases were reported on the Sunshine Coast.
Cases have been slowly rising since the end of February. Powell River, which hasn’t had new confirmed cases since mid-March, reported two.
The Howe Sound local health area, however, continues to see persistent increases and a far higher rate of infection. The area, which includes Whistler, Pemberton and Squamish, saw 410 new cases from March 28 to April 3.
The record-breaking increase represents one per cent of the region’s total population, which was listed at just over 38,000 people in 2017.
In comparison, Burnaby’s local health region identified 366 new cases of COVID-19 last week, despite its population of approximately 250,000 people.
Whistler has been a hotspot in the region, with the most recent case counts made available by VCH showing 218 new cases of the coronavirus were identified within the resort municipality from March 22 to 28.
VCH does not typically publicize caseloads in small communities in order to protect medical privacy.
The resort’s worsening outbreak prompted Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton this week to call on the province to launch a community vaccination program for all locals aged 18 and older.
On Thursday, April 8, B.C. set a record of its own with 1,293 cases detected in the past 24 hours, provincial health officer Bonnie Henry told media.
She added that researchers had used a different system to calculate the data, and that the data might be revised when the province’s regular system is once again up and running.
To help combat the spread of the virus, Henry said she was putting in place a new health order that allows WorkSafeBC to more quickly shut workplaces down when they detect outbreaks for 10 days or more.
Henry called the order an “ongoing evolution” of the program that the province has had for workplaces.
– with files from Megan Lalonde and Glen Korstrom
