The rate of COVID-19 transmission in Whistler continues to drop, with Vancouver Coastal Health reporting fewer than five new cases in the resort last week.
That's down from the week prior, when Whistler identified 15 new cases of the virus between April 26 and May 2. It's an even farther cry from the case counts that were being released just a few weeks ago, for example, when Whistler recorded 218 new cases in the last week of March.
The health authority attributes this sustained reduction in transmission, in part, to a week-long mass vaccination campaign in April that saw every adult local or employee made eligible to receive a vaccine.
That handful of cases is among 39 positive COVID-19 tests that were tallied in the Howe Sound local health area in the week spanning May 4 to 10. It's the lowest weekly case count in the local health area— which includes Whistler, Pemberton, Squamish and parts of the southern Stl’atl’mx Nation—since the week of Feb. 28 to March 6, when 32 new cases were discovered. Transmission across the area peaked between March 28 and April 3, when 410 positive tests were logged.
Since the pandemic began last year, the region has recorded 2840 cases, cumulatively.
These updated numbers were released Wednesday, alongside additional data from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) that was disclosed publicly for the first time, following last week's leak of documents that showed B.C. health officials have been withholding detailed data from the public.
One of those statistics is the proportion of British Columbians by local health area who have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. According to the BCCDC, 61 to 80 per cent of the Howe Sound area's population aged 18 and over have received their shot.
Last month, VCH said it had so far delivered 17,100 doses of vaccine to residents of Whistler and its neighbouring communities.
The good news is echoed in the province-wide statistics that were released in Wednesday's daily update.
The number of British Columbians known to be actively battling COVID-19 infections fell for the 13th consecutive government update, to 5,887.
It's the lowest number since March 25, almost seven weeks ago, and comes as the province's vaccination effort continues to ramp up. In total, provincial officials have provided 2,277,318 doses of vaccine to 2,162,023 people,
New infections have also stayed significantly lower than they were one month ago, with B.C. reporting 600 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
- With files from Glen Korstrom
