New Westminster's COVID-19 case count is continuing to climb as part of region-wide growth in cases in the past week.
The latest B.C. Centre for Disease Control data shows New Westminster had 45 cases last week (from Dec. 5 to 11). That's up from 38 last week, when cases took a sudden upturn from 21 the week before.
Last week's spike pushed New Westminster's numbers above most of the municipalities in Metro Vancouver on a per-capita basis. That week, the city's daily case count grew to 8 per 100,000, while most other municipalities in the region sat in the 1-to-5-per-100K zone.
New Westminster's case count remains at 8 per 100K this week. Now, numerous other municipalities have joined New West in the 5-to-10 bracket, including North Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Delta and parts of Vancouver.
Burnaby, the Tri-Cities, West Vancouver and parts of Vancouver have stayed in the 1-to-5 zone. Though Burnaby's case counts climbed from 49 to 69, the Tri-Cities actually saw a drop over the same two weeks, from 66 to 54. (See map above.)
Test positivity in New West, which had dropped to 2% just two weeks ago, remains at 5% – the same as last week.
Provincewide, British Columbia's case counts have risen sharply in the past couple of days, hitting a six-week high of 584 yesterday.
This week's upturn in cases led Health Minister Adrian Dix to sound a cautionary note in a Wednesday press conference. He said a rise in cases in both the Vancouver Coastal and Island health regions stemmed in large part from "unorganized" events – that is, parties and social gatherings.
Dix urged British Columbians to be careful with their social plans in light of the rising concern over the Omicron variant.
“This is the time for caution. We have a new variant of concern in the world ... and people need to be extremely cautious," he said.
“If you're going to an event, and you don't know everyone at the event, and there isn't a vaccine mandate at the event, don't go.”
– with files from Nicholas Johansen, Castanet
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
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