For the first time since British Columbia switched to weekly reporting of COVID-19, the number of people in hospital with the disease has dropped.
As of Thursday, the hospital has 550 patients with a positive test, which is less than 570 at the time last week. Among the sick are 39 people in intensive care, which is less than 47 last Thursday.
The chart shows the number of COVID-19-positive patients in a hospital in British Columbia on Thursday after the province switched to a “hospital census” model in January. (CTV)
Data on hospitalization of BC COVID-19 include both those with a serious illness requiring hospitalization and those who are in hospital for other reasons and have tested positive for coronavirus during routine screening.
Since the province switched to this “hospital census” model in January, there have been as many as 985 patients in hospital on Thursday and only 255.
The drop in hospitalizations this week marks a departure from the recent trend, with the total number of hospitalizations doubling since the end of March.
While the decline in hospitalizations may indicate that the sixth wave of the pandemic has reached its peak in British Columbia, other data released on Thursday are mixed.
NEW CASES
The new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased slightly compared to the previous week, with 2283 registered for the week of 24 to 30 April, compared to 2269 for the previous period.
These figures include only “laboratory-confirmed, laboratory-probable and epi-related” cases, according to the BC Centers for Disease Control. Because most people with symptoms in BC do not qualify for a laboratory PCR test and BCCDC does not collect data for positive rapid antigen tests, there is no way to know the true number of new infections in BC during the week in question.
However, new laboratory-confirmed infections are still not declining, as they would be expected to do if overall transmission in the province was low.
NEW hospitalizations
Similarly, although the number of patients in the hospital was lower this week than last, the number of new hospitalizations reported for the week of April 24-30 continued to rise.
Last Thursday, the BCCDC reported that there were 355 new hospitalizations in the last epidemiological week (April 17-23). That number was revised up to 418 in the data release this week.
The report for the current week, covering the period from April 24 to 30, shows 375 new hospitalizations. This figure is higher than last week’s starting point and is also expected to rise “as data becomes more complete”, according to the BCCDC.
NEW DEATH
Deaths also continue to rise. The starting point for last Thursday was 42 new deaths for the week of April 17-23, a figure that was revised to 66 in this week’s report.
This week, the starting point for the week of April 24-30 is 50 deaths, a figure that is expected to rise.
It should be noted that the province switched to reporting “30-day all-cause mortality” in early April. This means that instead of trying to sort out the deaths caused by COVID-19 from deaths in which the deceased was COVID-positive but did not die from the disease, the BCCDC simply considers all deaths that occur within 30 days after a positive test, regardless of the cause of death.
“All-cause mortality is used, as the cause of death takes approximately eight weeks to register,” the BCCDC said in its weekly reports on COVID-19 numbers.
“Retrospective estimates of the underlying cause of death will be made by the BCCDC, in addition to the data provided in this report to better understand true mortality from COVID-19.”
WASTEWATER
Another indicator that helped quantify the increase in the sixth wave of the British Columbia pandemic is the monitoring of wastewater in the lower continent.
In the last few weeks, all but one of the five monitoring stations have seen a steady increase in coronavirus concentrations in wastewater.
However, the latest BCCDC’s “situation report” on Thursday showed less consensus among wastewater installations.
The facility in Northwest Langley has already seen a growing trend over the past six weeks, but the Annacis and Lions Gate plants are showing a declining trend.
The BCCDC described the Jonah Island trend as “stable”, while the Lulu plant has seen a growing trend, but only for the last week.
VACCINATION DATA
As almost all other COVID-19 public health orders were repealed in March and April, British Columbia health officials predicted an increase in coronavirus transmission as a result, but stressed that high levels of vaccination and antibodies from recent infection meant that the disease will not overload the health system.
The province administered 32,863 new doses of COVID-19 vaccine from April 24 to 30, averaging just under 4,700 a day.
Most of these doses were boosters – third or fourth dose. Only 2172 were new first doses and 3927 were second.
Age-standardized data available on the BCCDC’s COVID-19 dashboard show that those who received a booster were hospitalized with COVID-19 at a much lower rate than those who were not vaccinated or received only two vaccines.
However, relatively few BC residents received a third dose compared to the two-dose coverage.
As of Thursday, 91% of eligible people aged five and over in British Columbia had received at least one dose, and 88% had received two. The range of the third dose is 55% of people aged five and over or 60% of adults.
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