Some patients with COVID-19 have received treatment at Vancouver General Hospital | Photo: Rob Kruit
There are now 426 people with COVID-19 in British Columbia hospitals, up 57 from a week ago and the highest number since May 26, according to data from the British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC).
Of these, 34 are in intensive care units, which is two fewer than on July 7.
Deaths from COVID-19 continue to pile up, with 22 people listed as having died while infected with COVID-19 in the week to July 9. That was two fewer than the 24 deaths in the previous week. The death total includes anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days and then died. This calculation may include people who tested positive and then died in car crashes.
Government figures show 3,823 people have died while infected with COVID-19 in British Columbia, up 35 from a week ago, although only 22 new deaths were reported.
The British Columbia government’s process is supposed to include all deaths that involve people infected with COVID-19 in the weekly death toll and total death toll, and then at a future date remove it from the total death toll cases those in which the province is vital The Statistics Agency finds that the death is not due to COVID-19
Instead, however, every week for months, the number of new deaths has been lower than the number of deaths added to the total number of deaths from COVID-19.
BIV asked the Ministry of Health about the discrepancy, but received no explanation. All the ministry would say is that the weekly death toll “may be incomplete”.
The BCCDC detected 973 new COVID-19 infections in the week ending July 9. That’s up 208 from a week earlier and brings the number of known COVID-19 infections in British Columbia to 376,329 since the first case was detected in late January 2020.
However, data on new infections has long been dismissed, and even provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry earlier this year called the information “inaccurate.” That’s because in December she started telling people who are vaccinated and have mild symptoms not to get tested and just self-isolate. At the time, she said it was to increase testing capacity for those with more severe symptoms and those who are more vulnerable.
Testing is now encouraged only in cases where knowing the test result might change treatment recommendations.
The 12,302 COVID-19 tests conducted in British Columbia in the week ended July 9 were up 198 from a week earlier. Given that there were 973 new cases, the positive test rate for the week was 7.9 percent, up from 6.32 percent a week earlier. •
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