The Fraser Valley Current is new online journal covering the region east of Vancouver. It's off to a promising star: Exclusive: New figures reveal local COVID death toll. Excerpt:
At least 66 Abbotsford residents and at least 70 Langley residents died during the first two waves of the COVID pandemic putting both cities’ fatality rates well above the provincial average, according to new figures exclusively obtained by The Current.
The numbers were released to The Current following a freedom of information request and reflect deaths up to Feb. 5. The province has never proactively released city-level death figures, and no data from the last month is available.
Despite also having high case counts, Chilliwack has managed to avoid the high fatality rates of its neighbours to the west; its death rate was one-fifth that of Langley and Abbotsford. (Precise figures for places like Chilliwack with fewer than five deaths over a single time period were redacted by the Provincial Health Services Authority.)
The death rate in Langley and Abbotsford is well above the provincial average, whether one measures by total population, or the number of seniors older than 75.
There has been about one death for every 175 seniors over the age of 75 in the two communities. The rate in Chilliwack is five times lower, and half the provincial average. Numbers aren’t available for Mission or the valley’s smaller towns.
Burnaby and Prince Rupert had the province's highest death rates, based on cities' population of older seniors. Thanks to vaccinations, deaths have decreased dramatically since Feb. 5. There had been 1,246 deaths prior to that date. But more than 170 people have still died in the month and a half since.
