No new cases of COVID-19 in entire IH region Wednesday

Photo: File photo

The entire Interior Health region has zero new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, for the first time since July 6.

Following multiple COVID-19 exposure events in Kelowna earlier this month, the number of confirmed cases in the Interior has skyrocketed in recent weeks. The region saw its highest single-day of new cases since the pandemic began on July 16, when 20 new cases were discovered.

Earlier this week, IH said the number of cases related to this “Kelowna cluster” reached 90, 78 of which are residents of the Interior Health region. As of Tuesday, there were 67 residents of the Interior with active cases of COVID-19, two of whom were hospitalized.

But on Wednesday, IH spokesperson Karl Hardt says the two people who were hospitalized have since been released.

Despite this positive news, the Kelowna General Hospital is moving to “Phase 2” of its pandemic plan, in preparation for a possible influx of COVID-related hospitalizations in the future.

“Given the recent increases we are seeing in our community, KGH is taking steps to have beds available if they are needed,” Hardt said.

“This includes moving a small number of patients to alternate locations in the hospital with the staff to support them, as per the pandemic plans we have in place at the hospital."

An internal KGH email says patients from an “acute stroke unit” will be moved to a different area of the hospital, to “create additional HOT bed capacity to admit suspect COVID patients.”

There remains eight staff at KGH who've been diagnosed with the virus, but IH believes they contracted it from outside the hospital setting. As a result, no COVID-19 outbreak was ever declared at KGH.

Since the pandemic began, 358 of B.C.'s 3,523 confirmed COVID-19 cases have come from the Interior. Two of the province's 194 deaths have been from the Interior as well.