There are currently 364 people in hospital with COVID-19 in British Columbia, according to the BC Center for Disease Control’s weekly update on pandemic statistics.
The total number, which includes both serious cases of coronavirus requiring hospitalization and incidents among people who have been hospitalized for other reasons, has increased by 40 compared to last Thursday.
This graph shows the number of patients tested positive for COVID-19 in BC hospitals on Thursday, starting on January 20, 2022, when the province began to include randomized hospitalizations in its total number. (CTV)
However, the number of COVID-19 patients in the province’s intensive care units fell slightly from 38 last week to 36 on Thursday.
The latest figures come after the first full week without daily updates on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations or deaths by the provincial government, and as Canada’s chief physician describes the country as experiencing a “sixth wave” of pandemics.
NEW CASES AND HOSPITALIZATIONS
The weekly update from the BCCDC shows that there were 233 new hospitalizations from April 3 to 9. It is also reviewing the new total number of hospitalizations from the previous week from the initially reported 193 to 230.
Meanwhile, the number of new cases for the week of March 27 to April 2 was slightly revised down from 1706 to 1703.
In the last week of data, from April 3 to 9, the BCCDC reported 1,770 new cases.
This total includes only “laboratory-confirmed, laboratory-probable and epi-related cases”, which means that cases confirmed by rapid antigen testing – the only type of testing available to most British Colombians with symptoms of COVID-19 – are not included.
Residents who test positive in a rapid test may not even report this information to the BCCDC, which recently discontinued its online form for reporting rapid test results.
This means that the true number of people infected with COVID-19 in British Columbia is not known, nor can it be known.
TRENDS IN DATA
What is known, based on the data that the province collects and publishes on a weekly basis, is that infections and hospitalizations are increasing.
Deaths are also on the rise, according to the BCCDC, although it should be noted that the province now reports deaths based on “30-day all-cause deaths”, meaning that anyone who tested positive for COVID 19 within 30 days of their death was included, even if their deaths were not related to COVID-19.
Yet when the province released its first version of that number of deaths last week, there were 11 such deaths between March 27 and April 2.
This week, the total number was revised to 20, and the total number for the last week – from 3 to 9 April – was reported as 23. This total is expected to increase “when the data becomes more complete”, according to the BCCDC.
Similarly, wastewater monitoring, which is used to estimate the overall incidence of COVID-19 in the community, has shown an increasing trend in viral load in recent weeks.
Of the five wastewater treatment plants in the lower continent that are regularly tested for COVID-19, four observed at least three consecutive weeks of increasing viral load on Thursday, according to the BCCDC’s weekly Situation Report.
The fifth observed “variable” viral loads that did not show a clear trend, although COVID-19 levels remained “elevated”, according to the BCCDC.
VACCINATION DATA
With regard to vaccination, BCCDC data show that the province administered 25,916 new doses from 3 to 9 April, or an average of about 3,700 per day.
Most of the new doses were secondary injections or boosters. Only 2564 first doses were administered during the week.
Across the province, approximately 91% of people aged five and over had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 88% had two vaccines. Approximately 60% of adults received an additional vaccine.
VACCINATION, AGE AND RISK
As health professionals in British Columbia and elsewhere shift from destructive public health measures to an emphasis on individual responsibility as the primary strategy to limit coronavirus transmission, age remains the greatest risk factor for serious complications of COVID-19.
The average age of deaths caused by COVID-19 in British Columbia is 82 on April 2, according to the BCCDC.
Among BC residents aged 70 and over, more than 10 times more received three doses of vaccine than unvaccinated.
Accordingly, vaccinated and reinforced older people in this age group account for many more cases, hospitalizations, intensive care and deaths than the unvaccinated group, a fact largely due to a much larger number of people who had three vaccines than neither one.
Looking at per capita numbers, those aged 70 and over become infected with coronavirus at approximately the same rate, regardless of vaccination status. There were 274 cases per 100,000 unvaccinated people aged 70 and over in British Columbia from 13 March to 9 April and 279 cases per 100,000 reinforced people in the same age group over the same period.
However, unvaccinated elderly were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized during this time. There were 148 hospitalizations per 100,000 among the unvaccinated, compared with 63 per 100,000 among the vaccinated.
The difference was even greater in the intensive care unit and deaths. Unvaccinated adults were admitted to intensive care units at a rate of 22 per 100,000 from 13 March to 9 April, while those with booster vaccines were admitted to only 7 per 100,000.
For deaths, the rates were 29 per 100,000 among the unvaccinated group and 7 per 100,000 among the amplified.
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