Another 22 COVID-19 deaths reported across B.C. over the weekend

There were 22 more deaths attributed to COVID-19 over the weekend in British Columbia, as the number of test-positive patients in hospital continued to decline.

Monday's update from the Ministry of Health put the province's seven-day average for coronavirus-related deaths to 7.9 per day, down from 9.4 on Friday. There have been 2,873 COVID-19 deaths recorded across the province since the start of the pandemic.

Northern Health reported six of the coronavirus-related deaths reported over the last 72 hours, Island Health and Fraser Health each reported five, Interior Health reported four and Vancouver Coastal Health reported two.

Meanwhile, the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 dropped to 549, the lowest B.C. has seen since Jan. 13. The number of those patients in intensive care fell to 85, down from 96 on Friday.

Overall hospitalization numbers include both patients suffering from severe COVID-19 illness and those who tested positive incidentally after being admitted for unrelated reasons. A recent study from the Vancouver Coastal Health region found incidental cases made up nearly half of the total.

The Ministry of Health also announced 974 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon, pushing the province's seven-day average below 500 per day for the first time since mid-December – though daily case numbers have not been considered an accurate measure of transmission since B.C. stopped testing most people.

Officials still believe transmission is declining based on other measures, including test-positivity rates and wastewater monitoring.

Two new health-care facility outbreaks were declared over the weekend, at Sun Pointe Village and Fischer Place, both in the Interior Health region. Another at Trinity Care Centre has ended, leaving 28 ongoing outbreaks across the health-care system.

So far, 90.6 per cent of eligible B.C. residents age five and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 86.3 per cent have received two. Among adults, 57.7 per cent have received a third dose of booster shot.

Local, national and international data shows the vaccinated are much less likely to suffer serious outcomes from COVID-19. The latest numbers from the Ministry of Health show the unvaccinated were hospitalized at a rate of 46.4 cases per 100,000 population from Feb. 11 to 24, after adjusting for age. By comparison, the fully vaccinated were hospitalized at a rate of 8.1 cases per 100,000 population.