The number of other people hospitalized with COVID-19 in British Columbia rose Thursday, but remains near a 14-month low.
There were 193 patients who tested positive at B. C. hospitals Thursday, according to the B. C. Center for Disease Control. That’s up from 188 last week, which is the lowest point since December 2021.
The number of COVID-positive on British Columbia. hospitals on Thursdays in 2023 is shown. (CTV)
As of Thursday, the BCCDC’s weekly report on ongoing hospitalizations had shown weekly declines since the beginning of the year, pushing the number to all-time lows in 2022.
However, there were symptoms in last week’s report that transmission of the coronavirus had begun to stabilize or even resurface.
The hospitalization figures in the graphs in this article show what the BCCDC calls the “hospital census”: the total number of other people hospitalized on any given day who are COVID-positive, whether or not illness is the underlying explanation for their hospitalization.
Health officials estimate that between 40 and 50% of hospitalizations reported each week are caused by the coronavirus, while the rest are so-called accidental cases, in which a user went to the hospital for a non-COVID remedy and tested positive after admission. .
Since the BCCDC began reporting the “hospital census” in January 2022, the number of other people hospitalized on a Thursday has reached 985 and as low as last week’s total of 188.
The number of other people in B. C. Se show hospitals with COVID-19 on Thursdays since the province switched to a “hospital census” style in January 2022. (CTV)
As of Thursday afternoon, this week’s wastewater tracking data had not yet been released. However, the most recent data available has shown increasing concentrations of the virus that causes COVID-19 in several communities, mainly outdoors in the Lower Continent.
SARS-CoV-2 levels were expanding in Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton, Victoria and Nanaimo. The only coronavirus tracking treatment plant outside the Undercontinent that showed a building was in Comox Valley.
Of the five Metro Vancouver processing plants included in the monitoring, only Northwest Langley showed an increase in coronavirus concentrations, all other plants were declining at a slower pace than in recent weeks.
Knowledge of wastewater monitoring is useful because knowledge about positive COVID-19 controls is limited. The BCCDC only reports the results of laboratory checks, which are only obtained in British Columbia. Residents in some special circumstances.
Rapid home antigen tests are not included in weekly case totals in BCCDC reports, although they are the only testing method available to most British Columbians.
Still, the trend in newly reported cases, along with knowledge of wastewater and other signs, may show the transmission trajectory in the province.
This week, the BCCDC reported 341 new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections for the period from February 5 to 11. This is an accumulation of the 278 reported during the last epidemiological week.
Health administered 11,139 new doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the week ending Feb. 11, according to the BCCDC’s COVID-19 dashboard.
This overall represents a buildup from last week, when 10,574 doses were administered, but still well below the levels seen in the fall recall campaign.
As in this campaign, the maximum doses given in the last maximum week were given to other people who had already gained at least one booster dose.
This week’s update came on the same day that BC Auditor General Michael Pickup released his information on tracking and controlling the province’s immunization rates for the first year of the vaccination campaign.
The Auditor General found that while the Department of Health had the knowledge it needed and was doing an overall smart follow-up task, there were some problems with reporting and record-keeping, specifically with regard to vaccination rates among physical care staff and long-term care. health care facilities.