Staying inside may have helped spur COVID-19 spread in Kamloops: medical health officer

KAMLOOPS — Almost three weeks into winter, and so far, the weather has been mild. However, the virus that kept us apart over the holidays has been the opposite. The week after Christmas saw a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases across the city; 68 between December 27 and January 2. Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton suggests there are two reasons for the rise.

“One is that the air is colder and drier, which allows the virus to live longer in the environment,” Dr. Fenton says. “The other is that our human behaviour tends to be a little bit different in the winter. We tend to stay indoors, which protects the virus and we tend to gather together.”

Dr. Fenton says she hopes the guidelines around Christmas gatherings were followed throughout the region. She also mentioned she doesn’t have any expectations of case numbers rising any higher as we approach two weeks post-Christmas.

“I would hope at this point we’re all familiar with what we need to do to decrease the spread [of COVID-19] and we all know what those things are: we need to limit social interaction with our household only. We need to make sure we’re wearing masks whenever we’re in indoor spaces with those outside of our household. We need to make make sure we’re diligent with washing our hands very well.”

There have been some challenges around the vaccination process. Both the Moderna and Pfizer versions of the vaccine have now been cleared for transport, which means Interior Health has been able to adjust its vaccination strategy to include some of the smaller communities in the area. However, ensuring staff is up to speed on best practices with each vaccine has also proven challenging.

“We have to retrain each of our staff as we receive this information, and sometimes we only receive it the day before we have to roll out vaccines,” Fenton says. “We have to be very nimble, and I’ve been very impressed with all of our nursing colleagues that have risen to the challenge.”

As winter goes on, Dr. Fenton continues to urge the citizens of Kamloops to remain vigilant in the fight against the virus.

“Keep your COVID-19 prevention measures, as much as you can,” she urges. “If we can keep the rate of COVID low, the necessary number of vaccinations we need to reach herd immunity is lower. So we’ll get there faster if we can keep that rate low.”