Vancouver Island COVID-19 surge partly fuelled by cluster from Courtenay-area religious gathering
For much of the week, Island Health has been home to the largest number of new and active cases anywhere in the province outside of Fraser Health. On Thursday, the Island’s top doctor explained why.
Dr. Richard Stanwick, Island Health’s chief medical health officer, says there are basically two factors driving the recent surge in cases.
One factor is, essentially, that the Island has been a victim of its own success.
Earlier in the pandemic, when people were following the rules more diligently on the Island than elsewhere, there were more cases on the mainland, so the proportion of people with antibodies for the coronavirus increased more there.
Since the emergence of the more-transmissible Delta variant, that herd immunity on the mainland is helping keep cases lower in spots previously hit harder than the Island, and the Island is currently seeing a relative spike.
The second reason for an uptick in cases is a cluster connected to a religious gathering in the Courtenay area last week, according to Stanwick.
That event has triggered a spike in case counts in the northern part of the Island, fuelling overall island numbers.
But Stanwick says the infections connected to the cluster haven’t been serious.
“The important thing that we’ve learned from this particular situation -- which has largely involved healthy younger adults and individuals between the ages of 10 and 19 – (is) that we've had no hospital admissions,” said Stanwick Thursday. “This may, in fact, be the picture of us dealing with COVID going forward in the future, that we will see significant respiratory outbreaks, but with very little severe consequence.”
Stanwick says he doesn’t think COVID-19 numbers on the island will return to previous lows until February, when he’s hopeful they’ll again hover around 20 to 30 cases per day.
He says he expects to see a spike in cases starting in January because of holiday gatherings and other indoor activities. The wild card in that prediction, of course, is the new Omicron variant.
Stanwick says he wouldn’t be surprised if it’s already on the Island, and predicts it will be identified here before Christmas. He says officials should know in about 10 days whether existing vaccines are effective against Omicron.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.