As of Thursday, 570 people are being treated in hospital for COVID-19 and 47 are being treated in the intensive care unit, according to the BC COVID-19 control panel. This is a 17 percent increase in hospital admissions compared to last Thursday, when 485 people were hospitalized for the virus. Intensive care admissions increased by 23.6% from last week, when 38 people were in the intensive care unit. The figures released Thursday are part of a new approach by BC health officials, both in the transition to the weekly report and in the way some measurements are calculated. Other pandemic-related data are available in the report of the BC Centers for Disease Control, which this week monitors 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 at the time. The BCCDC notes in its report that the number of hospital admissions and deaths is temporary and is likely to increase. The report, released Thursday, shows that 2,726 new COVID-19 cases were reported during that period, based solely on laboratory-reported 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 probably underestimates the actual number of people with COVID-19 in BC. 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 BC weekly report includes all those who died within 30 days of being tested positive for COVID-19, whether or not the virus has been confirmed as the underlying cause of death. Previously, each death was investigated to determine if COVID-19 was the cause. Test positive rates in the province are on the rise, reaching 11 percent throughout BC. on April 23, up 9.8 percent from the previous week. The provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said anything above a five percent test positive is an indicator of a more worrying level of transmission. Sewage testing at five different treatment plants, representing 50 percent of the population of BC, shows that viral loads are growing faster in the last four to five weeks than reported cases, suggesting increasing numbers of 19 unreported COVID cases. due to reduced Community diagnostic tests. according to the BCCDC status report. Provincial statistics show that more than 33,954 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered between April 17 and 23.
