Photo: Castanet Staff

A new COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at a Lake Country residential treatment facility Wednesday.

The Ministry of Health announced the new outbreak at the Okanagan Men's Centre in its daily COVID-19 press release, but provided no additional details.

In a separate press release from Interior Health, which provided an update on the other Okanagan outbreak at École de L’Anse-au-sable, the Okanagan Men's Centre was not mentioned.

Castanet has reached out to Interior Health about the new outbreak, and expects more details about the number of cases involved by Wednesday evening.

The Okanagan Men's Centre is operated by the Adult & Teen Challenge B.C. Janalyn Oige, executive director of the organization, declined to provide any details on the outbreak.

The Okanagan Men's Centre is a faith-based residential recovery centre in Lake Country, where men 19 years of age and older live for a year while recovering from addiction.

The outbreak comes as Kelowna's École de L’Anse-au-sable outbreak grows to 16 cases. It remains the only declared COVID-19 outbreak in a B.C. school. An additional 175 people at the school have been directed to self-isolate, and last weekend, the school opted to shut down entirely until Nov. 4.

Additional exposures have recently been declared at Kelowna Secondary School, where two cases have been confirmed, and at Kelowna's St. Joseph's Elementary school and Aberdeen Hall, where single cases have been confirmed.

An outbreak is declared when transmission within the school has been identified, while exposures don't necessarily mean transmission within the school itself has occurred.

Additionally, three Kelowna daycares have chosen to shut down, after learning members of their community contracted the virus.