B.C. hits 500 COVID-19 patients in hospital in latest update

B.C.'s surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations continued Wednesday, with 500 infectious patients now in hospital with the disease for the first time since April 2021.

Of those hospitalized, 102 are in intensive care units.

Wednesday's numbers came in a written statement from the Ministry of Health, which also announced 2,859 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six new deaths.

Because B.C.'s testing system has been overwhelmed by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the new infections announced Wednesday are almost certainly a fraction of the total number of people who have contracted the disease in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 36,641 active, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C., which is a record. The actual number of active cases in B.C. may be five times as high, according to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

The surge in COVID-19-related hospitalizations has been rapid in recent weeks. One week ago, on Jan. 5, there were 317 people in hospital with the disease. Two weeks ago, on Dec. 29, the number was 206.

Henry has said that B.C. health officials are in the process of conducting a "deep dive" into hospitalization numbers. 

Part of the purpose of the study is to determine the severity of the outcomes of hospitalizations due to Omicron compared to the Delta variant.

The province has not released data on how many people currently in hospital have Omicron and how many have Delta, but nearly all new cases in the province in recent weeks have been Omicron.

Henry said last week that hospitalization numbers include both people who are hospitalized because of severe symptoms from the coronavirus, as well as those who test positive after arriving at hospitals for other reasons, such as people who test positive as part of an acute care outbreak.

The independent B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Group has suggested that B.C. could see more than 2,000 hospitalizations during the Omicron wave, and provincial health officials have said opening a field hospital in the Vancouver Convention Centre is a possibility. 

Some of the patients included in Wednesday's hospitalization total are people who tested positive in health-care outbreaks, which have been growing in numbers across the province in recent weeks.

There are currently 49 ongoing outbreaks in health-care facilities in B.C., according to the ministry. That total includes 39 in long-term care homes, nine in acute-care facilities, such as hospitals, and one in an assisted or independent living facility.

Four hospital outbreaks and one care home outbreak were added to the total on Wednesday.

A major reason for the surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks is the Omicron variant's ability to infect people who are vaccinated against the disease.

Over the last week, 79.9 per cent of new infections in the province have been detected in people with at least two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Unvaccinated people continue to be overrepresented among the hospitalization count, however. Over the last two weeks, they accounted for 31.5 per cent of new hospitalizations, despite making up just 15 per cent of the province's total population, including infants and toddlers who are too young to be vaccinated.

Adjusting for age, there were 47.2 hospitalizations per 100,000 unvaccinated people between Dec. 28 and Jan. 10, compared to 8.5 per 100,000 among those who have received at least two shots.

As of Wednesday, 88.9 per cent of eligible people ages five and older have received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in B.C. A total of 83.2 per cent have received a second dose, and 29.9 per cent of adults have received a third dose.