As Prince Rupert's COVID count continues to rise, it's time for a bit more explanation as to why from Northern Health

With the Prince Rupert area now expanding on its lead compared to other areas of the Northwest when it comes to positive cases of COVID, the time has long since passed for some additional details from Northern Health as to the extent of the surge and where the recent spikes can be attributed to.

Less than a month ago, this part of the Northwest had been finding some success in holding back the tide of COVID. 

The toll of COVID has already been tragic for Prince Rupert with
fourteen residents of Acropolis Manor having passed away from 
the virus since Mid January.

However, with the first reports of COVID exposures at the School District level and then the large scale outbreak at Acropolis Manor with its tragic death count of fourteen passings, this region vaulted to the top of the Map of concern for the western side of Northern BC and so far we've heard little in explanation as to why from Northern Health.

Prince Rupert's weekly COVID count as of end of January 9 was Zero

The most recent weekly COVID count update as of this week for 
the period end February 27th posted 73 cases for the Prince Rupert Area

The last month of weekly BC CDC COVID case report counts can be reviewed below, as can the surge that seems to have taken hold in the region:

February 4
February 10
February 17
February 24
March 3

It seems unlikely that the current rise of the numbers as of Wednesday, can be attributed to the large outbreak at Acropolis, the last official update from Northern Health of February 25th, seemed to suggest that the situation there had levelled off, though still with a high level of those reported as having contracted COVID-19 still suffering from the virus.

Finding any information from the School District for the most part requires some extensive detective work, with parents and residents of the region having to review individual school websites to see if there are any notes of interest for their particular catchment area.

Social media however, has been pretty active with speculation and opinion for much of the last six weeks, some of it helpful, some of it not. 

Has the spread of COVID had an impact on the most vulnerable communities in Prince Rupert? Is the spread through the School District larger than most may understand? Have there been super spreader events or other larger outbreaks in one location that have not been noted yet?

Some of those are themes that have worked their way into the Northern Health Facebook page which focuses on Prince Rupert issues. 

Some get answered, others it seems don't.  

One thing is certain from that forum and through the communication options offered by Northern Health, so far, there's few answers as to how we have jumped so high so fast and why.

When you look at the last month, the pace of the rise in positive cases when considered per capita puts Prince Rupert into the same kind of spike in case counts as that found in Fraser Health which is where the virus is at its most accelerated pace.

With the surge in recent weeks, we've seen the library close it's doors and the City for the most part pull the drawbridge up at City Hall, a few indications that the current situation seems to have brought some cause for concern.

Today, Northern Health updated the community as to a potential exposure at Cranes' Crossing the city's homeless shelter, a good start towards information sharing but again short of actual information other than the normal roll out of an alert.

What's needed at this moment, in order to reassure the community that things are in hand is for a full community update, with some  extensive background on how the coronavirus arrived and quickly took root and where we may be failing in addressing that surge, particularly for those who are elderly or among our most vulnerable.

For much of the last year of COVID, the Prince Rupert area and its residents had done a fairly impressive job of adhering to the measures put in place and to keep the virus at significant distance; that all changed in the space of a few weeks, someone at Northern Health should explain why and what needs to be done now to bring it back to previous levels.

Without an update, the spread of word on the virus will be left to the Prince Rumour telegraph, a local stream of information with many more new ways of distribution these days that sends unsubstantiated information out to the world faster than even the spread of COVID seems to have achieved of late in the city.

For more notes on Northern Health see our archive pages here.