No COVID-19 outbreak or cluster in Revelstoke: Interior Health

Despite local COVID-19 exposures and a recent swell in testing, Revelstoke has not seen a significant surge in COVID-19 cases that would necessitate public health to call a community outbreak or cluster, said Interior Health.

This week two local restaurants temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Craft Bierhause shut its doors due to possible exposure and Taco Club from a confirmed exposure of the virus.

READ MORE: Two Revelstoke restaurants close due to COVID-19 exposure

READ MORE: Surge in appointments at Revelstoke COVID testing site

With all COVID-19 exposures in the region, contact tracing is done by Interior Health.

Unlike Alberta, B.C. does not disclose the number of COVID-19 cases to the municipal level on a daily basis. Instead, the province discloses local cases once per month. For October, there were zero cases among residents in Revelstoke. Interior Health has recorded just three in total since the pandemic began.

B.C. is expected to provide the number of COVID-19 cases for this month in Revelstoke by the middle of December.

Nearly two dozen cases of COVID-19 have been recently reported in Salmo, a Kootenay community of roughly 1,100 residents, forcing Interior Health to call it a cluster, but not an outbreak.

READ MORE: B.C. records 516 more COVID-19 cases, second day of decline

Yesterday, the province reported 516 additional cases of COVID-19, making it the second straight day of declines, indicating that restrictions on private gatherings in the coronavirus hot spot of the Lower Mainland might be starting to work.

Those restrictions were pushed province-wide yesterday and masks were made mandatory.

There are 235 active cases in the Interior Health region.

Interior Health said when there is a number of connected cases in a workplace or community, it’s categorized as a cluster. By comparison, an outbreak involves multiple cases and evidence of ongoing exposures and risks, such as the outbreak declared at Calvary Chapel in Kelowna in September.

The decision to declare an outbreak lies with medical health officers and is based on their assessment of ongoing risk and how best to contain cases.

READ MORE: Masks now mandatory in all public indoor and retail spaces in B.C.

READ MORE: COVID-19: B.C. extends private gathering ban province-wide

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