Surrey recorded its highest monthly increase of cases, with 7,043 in April.
That’s a 2,637-case jump since March when there were 4,406 cases recorded, according to the latest data released by the BC Centre for Disease Control on Thursday (May 6).
From Jan. 1, 2020 to April 30, the city has reported 33,146 cases, which is the most for any local health area in the province. It’s followed by Vancouver, which has recorded 20,202 in the same time period.
April’s case counts have surpassed Surrey’s previous high of 6,486 cases in November 2020. Following November, Surrey saw a steady decline in cases, with 5,630 in December, 3,186 in January and 2,402 in February.
In March, cases started to rise again (4,406 cases) with the onset of the third wave of the pandemic.
Between Jan. 1, 2020 and April 30, 2021, Surrey had accounted for about 26 per cent of all of B.C.’s 129,482 COVID-19 cases.
As for rate of COVID-19 cases, Surrey is seeing 4,000-plus cases per 100,000 people.
However, this comes as Surrey sees its first decrease in weekly cases since the week of Feb. 7 to 13 when there was a low of 538 cases.
The BCCDC releases weekly data on case counts by local health region, and for the week of April 25 to May 1, there were 1,671 cases. That’s the first decline in 11 reporting periods.
But the average daily rate of cases has stayed at more than 20 per 100,000 people.
COVID-19 cases in the Lower Mainland for the week of April 25 to May 1. (Map: BCCDC)
Meantime, South Surrey/White Rock recorded 545 cases in April.
The BCCDC data separates South Surrey/White Rock from the rest of Surrey
By April 30, 2021, there were 2,581 cases in that region.
As for rate of COVID-19 cases, South Surrey/White Rock is seeing between 2,000 and 3,000 cases per 100,000 people.
Surrey has seen the most cases in the Fraser Health region since the start of the pandemic, followed by Abbotsford (7,607), Burnaby (7,317), Tri-Cities (6,411), Langley (4,426), Delta (4,327), Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows (2,664), New Westminster (2,407), and Mission (1,250).
According to notes from the data, cases are mapped by location of residences, while cases “with unknown residence and from out of province are not mapped.”
It adds that the number of cases in the Local Health Authority, “may not represent the location of exposure,” such as people who were infected while travelling or working elsewhere.
READ ALSO: Active COVID-19 cases in Delta climb again after falling for two weeks, May 6, 2021
lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com
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