316 in hospital with COVID-19 as B.C. reduces frequency of updates

A sign at the entrance to Surrey Memorial Hospital is seen on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022. (CTV)

There were 316 people in B.C. hospitals with COVID-19 on Thursday, up from 282 when the province last provided data on the disease two weeks ago.

The hospitalized population reported by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control this week is the second highest the province has recorded in 2023, though still well below the highs seen last year.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in B.C. in 2023, as reported by the BCCDC, is shown. (CTV)The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in B.C. on every other Thursday since January 2022 is shown. (CTV)

 

Speaking to reporters earlier this month, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced that updates would switch from weekly to biweekly for the remainder of April, then shift to monthly after May 4. 

She described the change as a reflection of the fact that the province's respiratory disease monitoring tends to wind down in the spring, and that coronavirus-related data has been fluctuating more slowly of late than it has in the past.

Henry said monitoring of other respiratory diseases would stop on May 4, with an end of season report.

"For COVID, we are going to continue, because we're still in that transition period with the pandemic, and there's still some uncertainty about where we're going to be," she said.

It's unclear whether the province plans to increase the frequency of updates again in the fall when the next respiratory illness season begins.

OTHER DATA

The modest increase in the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 over the last two weeks matches patterns seen in other data released Thursday as well.

The weekly case count – which includes only those who test positive for COVID-19 in a lab-based setting and is not reflective of the total number of people catching COVID in the province – has increased from the 459 recorded during the week of March 26 to April 1, which was the last full week of data reported by the BCCDC before Thursday's update.

From April 2 to 8, there were 469 new cases confirmed, and from April 9 to 15, there were 519. 

The last time the BCCDC reported more than 500 new lab-confirmed cases in a week was in January.

Wastewater surveillance – which can help account for transmission of COVID-19 not captured in the official case count because of limited testing – has also shown increases in some parts of the province over the last two weeks. 

Notably, the BCCDC switched to a new, more sensitive test for wastewater at the end of February. This change resulted in the appearance of dramatic surges in concentrations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in B.C. wastewater.

After retesting old samples with the new test, the BCCDC has now published corrected wastewater data that shows more modest increases in concentrations in recent weeks.

The latest update shows virus levels increasing in Nanaimo, Penticton and Kelowna, as well as at four of the five treatment plants monitored in Metro Vancouver.

Concentrations have been declining in Victoria, the Comox Valley and Kamloops, as well as at the remaining Metro Vancouver plant, which is Lions Gate on the North Shore.