Agassiz and Harrison has seen a one week increase in new COVID-19 cases, after three weeks of less than a handful of cases.
According to BCCDC data released Wednesday (March 3), the Agassiz-Harrison Local Health Area saw 11 new cases of COVID-19 between Feb. 21 and Feb. 27. This comes after nearly a month of positive test results hovering around two or three each week.
RELATED: Agassiz, Harrison maintains low number of new COVID-19 cases
The local health area, which covers Agassiz and Harrison, as well as communities between Harrison Mills and the Shxw’ow’hamel First Nation and above Harrison Lake, is one of the smallest in the eastern Fraser Valley. Hope has around 1,600 fewer people than Agassiz-Harrison and saw seven new cases of COVID-19 between Feb. 21 and 27.
The Fraser East health service delivery area — which includes Agassiz and Harrison, as well as Hope, Mission, Chilliwack and Abbotsford — has been seeing an increase in cases over the last several weeks.
The increases are largely due to positive COVID-19 results in Mission, Chilliwack and Abbotsford. However, Mission has been the only community to see sustained COVID-19 growth in the last three weeks, as Chilliwack and Abbotsford have been fluctuating.
The rate of new COVID-19 cases in the eastern Fraser Valley show that, right now, all five communities are seeing about the same level of transmission. Because Hope and Agassiz-Harrison have the smallest populations, their changes in the weekly rate are the most extreme.
Currently, all five communities are seeing between 136 and 86 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people each week. Agassiz-Harrison is seeing the third highest rate of transmission, with 113 cases per 100,000 people each week. There isn’t enough data to show whether this increase will continue, or if it is just a one-week anomaly.
RELATED: COVID-19 cases increasing again in Fraser Health
For Fraser East as a whole, COVID-19 case numbers have been bouncing between 250 and 320 cases each week for the last five weeks. Other parts of the Fraser Valley have seen sustained increases in their COVID-19 case counts, particularly Fraser North.
Daily cases of COVID-19 show that although the weekly numbers have been going up and down, the region has been trending up over the month of February.
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