Skip to content
Join our Newsletter
  1. Home
  2. Local News

Northern Health maintains highest provincial COVID-19 positivity rate as cases start to dip

Northern Health continues to have a positivity rate over 10 per cent
Jess Balzer
Jess Balzer
northern-health-positivity-rate-jan-31-2021
Northern Health's seven-day moving average for COVID-19 positivity as of Jan. 31, 2020. BCCDC Dashboard

Northern Health continues to record a COVID-19 test positivity rate of more than 10 per cent. 

As of Sunday (Jan. 31), the region's seven-day moving average rate sits at 12.6 per cent, keeping it as the only region in double digits

The closest authority is the Interior Health region, which currently is seeing a seven per cent positivity rate. 

BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) data shows Island Health at 3.3 per cent, Vancouver Coastal Health at 4.3 per cent and Fraser Health with a current rate of 5.3 per cent. 

The provincial percentage sits at 5.2 per cent, that's 41 per cent lower than northern B.C.'s percentage. 

The highest positivity rate recorded in our region was on Jan. 1, 2021, which stood at 17.5 per cent. 

As of this publication (Feb. 2), Northern Health has conducted 55,902 tests with 3,489 confirmed to be positive, which is roughly six per cent. 

The BCCDC dashboard shows the region has recorded 74 deaths to date, while there are currently 32 people in the hospital, 15 of whom are in critical care or ICU. 

Officials say 3,046 people who were confirmed for COVID-19 in Northern Health have been fully classified as recovered. 

The updated distribution of cases by age are as follows: 

  • Less than 10 years old: 25
  • 10-19: 359
  • 20-29: 634
  • 30-39: 569
  • 40-49: 533
  • 50-59: 508
  • 60-69: 334
  • 70-79: 210
  • 80-89: 115
  • 90 and over: 25
covid19-northern-health-age-distribution-feb-2-2021Northern Health COVID-19 cases distributed by age as of Feb. 1. By BCCDC Dashboard

Last week, there was some encouraging news from the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) for the north. 

In the latest Geographic Distribution of COVID-19 by Health Service Delivery Area of Case Residence report, Northern Health recorded 269 cases from Jan. 22 to 28, 2021. 

The Northern Interior, Prince George included, recorded 74 cases; Northwest B.C. had the highest total with 130, while Northeast B.C. tallied 65. 

From Jan. 1, 2020 to Jan. 21, 2021, the Northern Interior has recorded 1,560 cases of the virus.