The number of COVID-19 patients in BC hospitals has increased again in the last week, according to data from the BC Centers for Disease Control.
As of Thursday, there were 485 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 in rural hospitals, up more than 100 from 364 the previous week. This total includes both patients with severe COVID-19 disease and those who were hospitalized for other reasons and accidentally tested positive.
This graph shows the number of patients with COVID-19 in hospital every Thursday since the onset of BC, including occasional cases of COVID-19 in the total number of hospitalizations in mid-January. (CTV)
Since the province began including incidents in the number of hospitalizations in mid-January, the total number of people in the hospital on Thursday reached 985 and only 255.
The number of patients in critical care has increased slightly in the last week, from 36 to 38.
The increase in hospitalizations follows a trend seen in British Columbia and across the country in recent weeks as Canada tackles the sixth wave of coronavirus infections caused by new sub-variants of Omicron and the removal of almost all public health measures aimed at curbing the transmission.
Experts and health officials said an increase in cases was expected, and British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry described the return to COVID-19 restrictions as a “last resort” and hoped it would not be necessary. .
TRENDS IN DATA
Thursday’s update from the BCCDC includes weekly numbers of newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths for the period April 10-16.
However, the data comes with many warnings. First and foremost, he is almost a week old. The only data BCCDC released on Thursday is the hospitalization and critical care numbers mentioned earlier and shown in the chart.
2,036 new infections were reported in British Columbia during the week of April 10-16. That’s about 15 percent more than the 1,770 new cases confirmed in the previous week, from April 3 to 9.
BCCDC numbers include only “laboratory-confirmed, laboratory-probable and epi-related cases”, which means, however, that cases confirmed by rapid antigen testing at home are not included in the total.
As most British Colombians do not qualify for PCR testing under the current provincial testing strategy and the results of rapid antigen tests are not collected or released, the true number of infections in the province cannot be known.
Similarly, the BCCDC’s weekly report shows that 238 new hospital admissions were registered in the province from April 10 to 16, but that number is expected to increase “as the data becomes more complete.”
The 238 new hospitalizations announced on Thursday are slightly more than the 233 originally announced last week for the period April 3-9. This week’s report revises the total for this week to 289.
The deaths are a similar story. The BCCDC says 27 deaths have been reported from April 10 to 16, but that number is likely to increase. From April 3rd to 9th, the center initially reported 23 deaths, but that total has now been revised to 37.
However, the true number of deaths caused by COVID-19 is likely to be lower, as the province recently switched to a “30-day all-cause mortality”, an indicator that includes anyone who tested positive for COVID -19 within 30 days of their death as a COVID-19-related death.
Each of these indicators – cases, hospitalizations and deaths – appears to be on an upward trend, a conclusion backed by data from wastewater monitoring in the lower continent, which shows rising concentrations of COVID-19 over several weeks, according to the latest weekly “situation”. “the BCCDC report.”
“SARS-CoV-2 viral load levels in wastewater are increasing faster than reported cases of COVID-19. This implies an increase in the number of undeclared cases of COVID-19 in the face of reduced diagnostic testing in the community, the report said.
VACCINATION DATA
BC administered 29,607 doses of COVID-19 vaccine during the week of April 10-16. This is nearly 3,700 more than the previous week and approximately 4,200 per day.
Most of these doses were second doses or boosters. Only 2177 of the injections given were first doses.
According to the BCCDC’s COVID-19 dashboard, approximately 91% of BC residents aged five and over received at least one vaccine, 88% received two vaccines, and 54% received a booster.
BCCDC data show that unvaccinated people remain overrepresented – relative to their share of the population – among those experiencing severe COVID-19 outcomes, such as hospitalization, hospitalization and death.
Looking specifically at those aged 70 and over who are among those most at risk of death from COVID-19, BCCDC data show a significant difference in the mortality rate between those not vaccinated and those who received three doses.
The number of reinforced elderly people whose deaths were attributed to COVID-19 between March 20 and April 16 reduces the number of unvaccinated people who died in the same age group.
During this period, there were 62 deaths among the elderly aged 70 and over, compared with only nine among the unvaccinated.
However, taking into account the relative size of the two populations reveals that unvaccinated adults were more than twice as likely to die as triple-vaccinated adults.
These nine unvaccinated deaths are equivalent to 22 deaths per 100,000 unvaccinated people aged 70 and over, while 62 deaths among enhanced adults are equivalent to approximately 10 deaths per 100,000.
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