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COVID cases continue to inch up on North Shore

Delta variant now makes up 57 per cent of cases in Vancouver Coastal Health
Jane Seyd
Jane Seyd

Numbers of COVID-19 cases on the North Shore are continuing to inch up, despite high vaccination rates.

There were 29 new COVID cases on the North Shore for the week of July 25 to 31, according to B.C.'s Centre for Disease Control. That is double the number of cases two weeks ago, and marks five weeks of slowly increasing numbers.

Of the cases reported in the past week, 26 were in North Vancouver. There were just three cases West Vancouver.

Cases in the Lower Mainland remain relatively stable but have been inching up in recent weeks.

Vaccination rates remain high on the North Shore, with 90 per cent of residents 12 and over in the District of North Vancouver having received at least one dose of vaccine.

Vaccination rates in the City of North Vancouver are between 86 and 87 per cent for those 12 and over. In West Vancouver vaccination rates are hovering between 82 and 85 per cent.

This past Wednesday, the North Vancouver clinic on Lloyd Avenue hosted a “walk-in Wednesday” for vaccination doses. Meanwhile the clinic that had operated since March in West Vancouver at the West Vancouver Community Centre has been closed by Vancouver Coastal Health after demand for shots there dropped.

Outbreaks in B.C.’s Interior Health region are continuing to push up the number of new COVID-19 cases in the province.

In the week ending July 31, the Central Okanagan area, including Kelowna, had 450 new cases.

The rising number of new cases has prompted the government to mandate masks inside public spaces again in the Central Okanagan area, and take other measures such as decreasing the waiting time between first and second doses of vaccine for those in that region. 

The Delta variant, first identified in India and considered more easily transmissible than other variants, is now the dominant strain of the virus in the province, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. The Delta variant now makes up about 89 per cent of cases in the Interior, and about 57 per cent of cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, according to the B.C. CDC.