The Agassiz-Harrison area is maintaining its low number of new COVID-19 cases, but that isn’t the case for the rest of the eastern Fraser Valley.
Between March 21 and March 27, the most recent data available from the BCCDC, the Agassiz-Harrison local health area saw three new cases of COVID-19. The week before it saw four new cases, after two weeks of new case numbers reaching the double digits.
RELATED: Agassiz, Harrison sees four new cases of COVID-19 in one week
In the rest of the eastern Fraser Valley however, cases are on the rise.
Chilliwack, Mission and Hope have all seen modest increases in the number of new COVID-19 cases, each seeing seven more cases than they saw the week before. Hope’s increase brought it up significantly from the zero cases it had been seeing for the past month or so.
Abbotsford saw 20 more cases of COVID-19 between March 14 and 20 than the week before, and has now seen 40 additional cases above that — the definition of exponential increase. That community is now up to the same number of weekly cases that it saw in late February and early March.
RELATED: Abbotsford second in Fraser Health for total COVID-19 cases in 2020
Abbotsford is currently seeing the highest rate of daily COVID-19 cases in the eastern Fraser Valley, followed by Mission.
Because of the small population in Hope and Agassiz-Harrison, the daily rate of COVID-19 fluctuates significantly. Hope, with seven new cases this past week, is seeing the third highest rate, with 12.3 daily cases per 100,000 people.
Agassiz-Harrison is seeing the lowest rate in the eastern Fraser Valley with 4.4 daily cases per 100,000 people. However, this comes after seeing the highest rate in the eastern Fraser Valley, and the second highest in the Lower Mainland, only three weeks earlier.
RELATED: Agassiz, Harrison sees second highest rate of COVID-19 transmission in Lower Mainland
The trend for the majority of the communities in the eastern Fraser Valley is following the provincial norm, which is seeing significant increases in new COVID-19 cases.
During the March 21 to 27 week, the province went from 661 new cases a day to 832 new cases a day. More communities were beginning to see increased rates of transmission, as the Surrey and Delta area, as well as Whistler, Prince Rupert, Merrit, Revelstoke and parts of Vancouver are all seeing more than 20 new cases per 100,000 people each day.
Since then, the province’s daily number of new cases has reached more than 1,000 — the highest in the pandemic.
The province has ramped up its vaccination program in light of the increasing case counts, and has increased restrictions as well.
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