Photo: BC CDC

New COVID-19 cases by community health service area, identified between May 4 and 10.

New COVID-19 cases have increased in the Downtown Kelowna, Glenmore and Lake Country regions of the Central Okanagan, while cases in former hot spot regions of Rutland and Summerland have decreased.

For the first time since the pandemic began more than a year ago, the BC Centre for Disease Control released some COVID-19 data by Community Health Service Area – a more granular scale than the local health area data that has been released since late November.

The data comes after The Vancouver Sun published a leaked document last week that showed the province had been collecting the detailed data.

That leaked data showed Rutland and Summerland were seeing higher rates of infection than other places in the Okanagan, and Interior Health later called these areas “hot spots,” and opened up vaccinations to all adult residents of these communities.

But the latest data shows the rate of infection in Summerland has dropped to between 0.1 and 5 daily infections per 100,000 people between May 4 and 10, down from between 20.1 and 40 between April 23 and 29.

The test positivity in Summerland has dropped to zero per cent, down from between 10.1 and 20 per cent two weeks prior.

And while Rutland's daily rate of infection was also between 20.1 and 40 per 100,000 people between April 28 and May 4, the latest data shows it's dropped to between 10.1 and 20.

The test positivity remains high in Rutland though, between 10.1 and 20 per cent, and Lake Country's test positivity has also increased to the same range.

Across the entire Okanagan, 21 to 40 per cent of adults have been vaccinated, save for Rutland and Lake Country, which has only had one to 20 per cent of the adults vaccinated.

Meanwhile,the most recent data also shows Downtown Kelowna and Glenmore also had a daily rate of infection between 10.1 and 20 per 100,000 people, while most of the rest of the region has a rate of between 0.1 and 10 daily infections per 100,000 people.

The BC CDC has not released the number of new cases by CHSA, but only maps showing a range of daily rate of infection, a range of test positivity and a range of vaccinated adults percentage.

The highest rate of infection and test positivity in the province remains in four communities in Surrey, where daily rates of infection are greater than 40 per 100,000, and test positivity is greater than 20 per cent.