The COVID-19 case counts were starting to rise in Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and surrounding communities even before record numbers were announced this week.
The COVID-19 geographic distribution maps released by the BC Centre for Disease Control showed there were 99 cases in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows for the week of Dec. 12-18, which was more than double the 46 cases for the week prior.
It was a similar story across the Lower Mainland. Tri-City cases rose from 54 to 193 over the same time frame, Langley went from 65-153, Abbotsford from 44 to 87, Surrey from 222 to 298, and Mission from 28 to 68. North Vancouver was one of the hardest hit communities in the region, gong from 72 cases to 267.
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The reason is the Omicron variant, which caused the provincial government to bring in new restrictions on Monday. On Wednesday, the province announced a new record with 1,474 new cases over a 24-hour period.
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