The BC Centre for Disease Control’s local health area COVID case numbers for October show the Lower Sunshine Coast saw just three additional cases over the month for a total of 29 since the beginning of the year.
The relatively modest increase followed a case count jump from 14 to 26 between August and September.
The new numbers, released Nov. 12, come less than a week after provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued a new order to “significantly reduce the level of social interactions and travel” in the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and Fraser Health areas, including the Lower Sunshine Coast and Powell River.
Powell River recorded no new cases in October, for a year-to-date total of 39.
Henry said at the time there had been a “worrisome increase of people with serious [COVID-19] illness requiring hospitalization and intensive care” in the two health authorities.
Only the Central Coast and Bella Coola Valley are excluded from the order.
Ministry of Health officials told Coast Reporter that the Central Coast and Bella Coola Valley were excluded because they are geographically separated from the rest of the VCH region and “more closely aligned to some of the lower-risk areas in the province,” while Powell River and the Sunshine Coast were included “based on travel [patterns] and health care access.”
In its most recent update, issued before the October numbers were revealed, the Sunshine Coast COVID Physician Task Force said: “Although we have done well relative to other areas in the Greater Vancouver area, and have fewer total cases (overall and as a percentage of our population) thus far, the number of local COVID-19 cases continues to rise… We have no reason to believe that our local trends are any different from other communities in the North Shore Coast Garibaldi area, and we suspect that we will see an exponential increase in cases here on the Coast as well.”
The public health order, which has been updated several times with new information and guidance, is available online here.
