Thursday May 6, 2021 | LOWER MAINLAND, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
Today Dr Henry was accompanied by both Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr Victoria Lee who is head of the Fraser Health Authority. Most transmission and cases are occurring in the Fraser Health region, said Dix, as has been the case for most if not all of the COVID-19 pandemic in BC.
“Nothing would make me happier than having all of Surrey vaccinated,” said Dr Lee today.
And Minister Dix said: “We should focus more vaccination in Surrey in the coming weeks, and that’s what you’re seeing.”
Of the 694 new cases of COVID-19 announced today by Dr Henry, 445 (64.1%) of those were in Fraser Health. The other cases were in Vancouver Coastal (153 cases | 22%), Interior Health (52 cases | 7.5%), Northern Health (27 cases | 3.9%), and Island Health (17 cases | 2.4%).
As seen throughout the pandemic (which began in the spring of 2020), some of the factors for high transmission in the densely populated Fraser Health area (which includes Surrey, Burnaby and other large municipal areas) are a high number of workplaces where COVID transmission is more easily possible, a range of language and communication challenges related to multiple ethnicities, and a higher proportion of multi-generational households.
Here on Vancouver Island we’ve seen the lowest number of COVID-19 cases. Generally speaking, there are fewer multi-generational households on Vancouver Island, the population is generally less dense, the employment profile is such that more people can work outdoors and/or from home, and there is a lifestyle already in place where people actively pursue time outdoors.
As Dr Henry has said through most of the pandemic: “outdoors is better than indoors”. Fewer faces, bigger spaces.
