Forty-two people have died in British Columbia after testing positive for COVID-19 last week, and hospital admissions and critical care are on the rise, according to a weekly report from the British Columbia Disease Control Center on the pandemic.
As of Thursday, 570 people are in hospital for COVID-19 and 47 are in intensive care, according to BC’s COVID-19 scoreboard.
That’s a 17 percent increase in hospitalizations compared to last Thursday, when 485 people were hospitalized for the virus. Resuscitation admissions increased by 23.6% compared to last week, when 38 people were in intensive care.
The figures, released on Thursday, are part of a new approach by BC health professionals, both in the transition to weekly reporting and in the calculation of certain indicators.
Other pandemic data are available in a report by the BC Centers for Disease Control, which this week tracked cases, hospital admissions and deaths between April 17 and 23.
According to the province, 42 people died within a month of a positive COVID-19 test during that period. The BCCDC notes in its report that the number of hospitalizations and deaths is temporary and is likely to increase.
The report, published on Thursday, shows that 2,726 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported during that time, based solely on laboratory results, for a total of 363,302 cases to date.
This is an increase of 11.7 percent compared to last week, when 2,036 cases were reported. However, due to changes in testing, the province says the number of cases is likely to underestimate the true number of people with COVID-19 in British Columbia.
A total of 355 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19 between April 17 and 23, according to the BCCDC.
COVID-19 levels in wastewater are rising
The number of deaths in the weekly BC report included all deaths within 30 days of a positive COVID-19 test, regardless of whether the virus was confirmed as the leading cause of death. Previously, every death was investigated to determine if COVID-19 was the cause.
The test-positive rate in the province is on an upward trend, reaching 11% across British Columbia on 23 April, up from 9.8% in the previous week.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said anything over 5 percent of the test positive is an indicator of a more alarming level of transmission.
Testing of wastewater at five different treatment plants, representing 50 per cent of the population of British Columbia, shows that viral loads have increased faster in the last four to five weeks than reported, suggesting an increasing number of undeclared cases of COVID-19 due to reduced diagnostic tests in the community, according to the BCCDC situation report.
Provincial statistics show that more than 33,954 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered from 17 to 23 April.
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