“Of all of our active cases in BC … about three-quarters of them are in the Fraser Health Authority right now, and the largest share of those are in Surrey,” stated Dix.
About 4,300 km away, the city of Brampton located in Ontario’s Peel Region has also been declared a hotspot in that province.
Last month, Brampton alone made up 66.5% of the Peel Region’s 11,822 COVID-19 cases.
Brampton-based consultant and advocate Jaskaran Sandhu says there are similarities between what is happening with the South Asian communities in these two cities.
Jaskaran Sandhu/Supplied
Both Brampton and Surrey have prominent South Asian populations. According to the 2016 census, about 44% of Brampton and 33% of Surrey’s populations identified as South Asian.