Dr. Bonnie Henry speaks to recent COVID spikes in Interior Health

KAMLOOPS — The COVID-19 case count within interior health has dropped to twelve within the last 24 hours, but just on Wednesday, Interior Health accounted for 31 per cent of the daily case count (21 out of 67).

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry sat down one-on-one with CFJC Today to talk about infection rates.

She says the increase can be attributed to small clusters in certain communities, but those cases are being well contained.

“Sometimes, it’s been related to small events, but I think the important thing is, and one of the things we’re seeing is it’s not spreading widely in the community like it did even a few months ago,” she said. “We look back to last summer where there quite a large outbreak related to people vacationing here in the Okanagan. We’re not seeing that type of spread rate, so it really is putting out those little fires as they erupt around the province.”

Dr. Henry adds while 77 per cent of adults in B.C. have received at least one dose of vaccine, there has been a slowing of vaccination rates, playing a role in some of the Interior’s spikes.

“That is one part of it, though immunization has been strong across the Interior. What we’re seeing is a slowing down of some of the immunization, particularly in the younger age groups,” said Dr. Henry. “Partly that is access. There are many smaller communities spread out. It’s quite a different game to try and reach people across the Interior. I know Interior Health is doing a lot of really new and innovative things with pop-up clinics and small clinics at places where people in more small communities gather.”