Hospitalizations stable after recent increase

After a sharp increase in the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in BC over the past week, the total was essentially flat on Thursday.

There were 237 test-positive patients in BC hospitals this week, three fewer than the 240 reported last week, but still above the low reached last month.

The total number of hospitalizations includes both those who have severe cases of COVID-19 that require medical care and those who are hospitalized for other reasons and who test positive after admission.

These “accidental” hospitalizations typically account for between 50 and 60 percent of the total reported each week by the BC Center for Disease Control, according to health officials.

Prior to January 2022, the BCCDC attempted to separate incidental hospital admissions from those caused by the coronavirus, only reporting the latter number.

Since switching to the current “hospital count” model, the province has reported up to 985 and just 188 test-positive COVID-19 patients in hospitals on Thursdays.

OTHER DATA

The weekly hospital count provides a snapshot of the impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare system, and it is the only data the BCCDC releases that is current and not tied to last Sunday through Saturday. Epidemiological Week.”

But it’s not the only data health officials are using to assess the situation in the province.

Other data available on the BCCDC’s respiratory disease dashboard is mixed this week.

It shows 405 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province during the February 19-25 epidemiological week, the highest total reported since January.

This case count does not reflect the full spread of COVID-19 in BC, but only includes laboratory-based testing that is only available to a small portion of the symptomatic population.

In addition to the official case count, the wastewater monitoring data helps capture the transmission trend in the general population.

Sewage data available Thursday afternoon had not yet been updated for this week but showed coronavirus concentrations were increasing at the Northwest Langley Wastewater Treatment Plant but falling at all others in Metro Vancouver.

Outside of the lower mainland, concentrations fell in Penticton but rose in Kamloops, Kelowna, and the three Vancouver Island communities with wastewater monitoring (Victoria, Nanaimo, and Comox Valley).

The BCCDC also reports the proportion of visits to doctors across the province that are made for symptoms of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

After rising in November and December, that metric has fallen significantly in recent weeks for all diseases recorded, with suspected COVID-19 accounting for less than half a percent of all health visits in the province since mid-January.