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The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases related to multiple exposure events in Kelowna in late June and early July has risen to 35 on Friday. And with public health officials monitoring “several hundred” people who may have been exposed, Dr. Bonnie Henry expects that number to keep rising.
Interior Health has announced a number of exposure events from June 25 to July 9 at several private parties, bars and restaurants in Kelowna, stemming from a single group of people from the Lower Mainland, Alberta and the Interior.
During an unscheduled press conference Friday afternoon, Dr. Henry said about 25 people of the 35 cases related to the Kelowna exposures reside in the Interior Health region, while others live in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. Others cases related to the Kelowna exposures, not included in the 35, live in Alberta.
“They're mostly younger people, which is good, although there are a few that are older,” Dr. Henry said, adding that she doesn't believe any of the related cases have resulted in hospitalizations.
“We've had the first group of cases that we found last week and then we found the people they were in contact with, so that's the second generation. Some of those people are now starting to get sick ... We're now in the third generation of people that they had contact with. So if we can find everybody quickly, we can stop that next generation from being exposed. So our aim is finding people as soon as possible.”
She said it's been challenging to track down all the different connections related to the Kelowna exposures.
“There were a number of parties with different people and they went to different restaurants and it just makes it challenging to connect all the dots."
Dr. Henry said there are “several hundred” people connected to the Kelowna exposures who are currently being monitored “and some percentage of them will develop symptoms in the coming days and weeks.”
While she said it's difficult to predict, studies suggest that somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent of these people may develop symptoms.
Friday morning, Dr. Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix travelled to Kelowna to meet with Mayor Colin Basran, MLA Norm Letnick, Interior Health CEO Susan Brown and Interior Health Medical Health Officer Dr. Silvina Mema.
“There are many tourist-dependant communities in that area and people seem to be using that area to come as a meeting place,” Dr. Henry said.
“We talked about opportunities to get messages out to people who are coming to visit ... putting out the message about how to do it in a way that respects the community and respects the safety of the community.”
There are currently 33 active cases of COVID-19 in the Interior Health region, but it's unknown how many active cases are in Kelowna.
An outbreak at Oliver's Krazy Cherry Farm Company is believed to be linked to the Kelowna exposures. A Naramata winery, and a Kelowna clothing store temporarily closed this week, while a Kelowna gym sent out an alert to its members, due to possible COVID-19 exposures.
Interior Health has said some of the infected people visited the following locations in early July:
- Cactus Club (1370 Water St.) from July 3-6
- PACE Spin Studio (1717 Harvey Ave.,) on July 2, 4-5 and 7-9
- Discovery Bay Resort (1088 Sunset Dr.) from July 1 to 5
- Boyce Gyro Beach Lodge (3519 Lakeshore Rd.) on July 1
