VANCOUVER -- There are only three regions that show more than 20 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents per day on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control's latest pandemic map, and all three of them appear to be trending in the right direction.
Released Wednesday, the newest map shows the total number of cases recorded during the week of May 9 to 15 in each of the province's "local health areas." It also shows approximate ranges for per-capita transmission.
The three regions with the highest rates of daily cases per 100,000 residents during the week in question were Surrey, Abbotsford and Mission. Each of those local health areas shows up on the map in the dark red colour that signifies more than 20 cases per 100,000 residents per day.
However, the total case count for the week in each region has declined since the week before.
The local health area that encompasses most of the City of Surrey saw 1,094 new cases during the week that ended May 15, a decrease of about 22 per cent from the 1,409 new cases recorded during the previous week.
Abbotsford's new cases declined from 408 during the week that ended May 8 to 315 in the most recent map, a decrease of roughly 23 per cent.
And in Mission, new cases declined from 89 to 75 on the latest map, a decline of about 16 per cent from week to week.
In each region, transmission remains high, but appears to be trending in the right direction as more people in B.C.'s hotspots get vaccinated and begin to develop immunity to the coronavirus.
Outside of the three regions already mentioned, no other local health area in B.C. recorded more than 15 cases per 100,000 residents per day during the week shown on the map, with large swaths of the province recording between zero and 10 cases per 100,000 during the period.
Still, the latest neighbourhood-level data released by the BCCDC, which only includes cases recorded through May 12, shows some areas seeing an increase in per-capita caseloads.
While the overall downward trend of coronavirus cases in B.C. continues, transmission rates are still high relative to where they were for most of the pandemic in the province.
On Wednesday, the province added 521 new cases and eight deaths from the disease, but the rolling seven-day average of new cases dropped to its lowest level since March 2, and active cases also declined.
Some of B.C.'s COVID-19-related restrictions are scheduled to expire after the May long weekend, but health officials have not yet indicated whether the rules will be extended.