With BC in the midst of another wave of COVID-19 infections, the number of patients hospitalized with the disease has risen rapidly in the past two weeks. However, the increase is not evenly distributed across regions.
Data from the British Columbia Center for Disease Control showed the number of patients testing positive in hospital rose from 273 on June 30 to 369 the following week and 426 on Thursday. That’s an estimated 56 percent increase in hospitalizations in two weeks.
The largest share of hospitalizations is consistently in the Fraser Health region, which is the most populous in the province.
But while Fraser Health saw a spike in the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 from June 30 to July 7, the number actually decreased from July 7 to Thursday. There were 121 COVID patients in the region as of June 30, rising to 172 the following week before falling to 157 last week, good for a net increase of 30 percent over the two-week period.
Every other regional health authority saw an increase in the hospitalized population between July 7 and last week, although some rose more dramatically than others.
Vancouver Coastal Health had the next highest total number of hospitalizations, with 102 people in hospital as of Thursday. That’s up from 82 on July 7 and 66 on June 30, or a 55 percent increase over the two weeks.
Island Health went from 49 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on June 30 to 55 on July 7 and then to 89 last week. That’s an 82 percent two-week increase.
Within Interior Health, the hospital count nearly doubled over the same time frame, rising from 25 on June 30 to 36 on July 7 and 49 on Thursday — a 96 percent increase.
However, the largest percentage increase was in the least populated health authority, which had the fewest patients in hospital. Northern Health saw a total increase from just seven patients three weeks ago to 18 on July 7 and 26 last week. That’s a nearly four-fold increase in two weeks, to the highest total number of hospitalizations seen in the region since April.
This chart shows the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in each of British Columbia’s five regional health authorities on Thursday, April 22. (CTV)
The latest regional totals do not add to the total of 426 because COVID-19 patients in Provincial Health Services facilities are not reported by region on the BCCDC’s COVID-19 Dashboard. Regional totals stood at 423, meaning there were three patients with COVID-19 in PHSA facilities as of Thursday.
British Columbia’s hospitalization data includes both people who are admitted to hospital for serious illness from COVID-19 and those who are hospitalized for other reasons and happen to test positive.
Since the province began counting hospitalizations this way — instead of trying to sort through and report only those hospitalizations actually caused by COVID-19 — there have been as many as 985 patients in hospital across the province on Thursday and as few as 255.
Add Comment