B.C. reports 1 COVID-19 death as hospitalizations continue to decline

Registered Nurse Manjot Kaur Munday, pauses for a moment outside the room of COVID-19 patient Joseph Trudeau, 49, of Surrey, B.C. at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, B.C., Friday, June 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

The B.C. government announced one death related to COVID-19 on Wednesday, as the number of test-positive patients in hospital continued to decline.

The single death represents a significant drop from the province's rolling weekly average of 7.86 deaths per day. Over the Family Day long weekend, an average of 11 deaths were attributed to COVID-19 per day.

The number of hospital-admitted patients with COVID-19 also decreased to 653, including 108 who are in intensive care. The total includes both patients suffering from severe COVID-19 illness and those who tested positive incidentally after being admitted to hospital for unrelated reasons.

Hospitalizations have dropped by nearly 40 per cent since reaching an all-time high of 1,054 at the end of January, including incidental COVID-19 patients.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said if the situation continues to improve, the government may be in a position to remove more restrictions soon.

"We're continuing to see this steady decline, and these are positive and encouraging trends," she said at a news conference earlier in the day.

"We have committed to reviewing things in the next few weeks with the goal of removing additional measures as soon as we possibly can."

Several COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed or lifted last week, allowing people to return to crowded nightclubs and dance over the weekend.

It's unclear whether those relaxed measures will have a noticeable impact on transmission.

The Ministry of Health reported 799 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, which includes 97 cases from the Northern Health region that are included "due to data corrections for historical cases reported between April 2021 and February 2022."

Daily infection numbers have not been considered an accurate measure since B.C. stopped testing most people, though officials believe transmission is declining based on test-positivity rates and other metrics.

Also on Thursday, officials provided details on distributing free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests for residents age 70 and older. The testing kits could be available at pharmacies by Friday.

The Ministry of Health had no new health-care facility outbreaks to declare, and said those at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and Chemainus Health Care Centre have ended. That leaves 29 active outbreaks across the health-care system.

So far, 90.5 per cent of eligible B.C. residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 86 per cent have received two. Just over 57 per cent of adults have also received a third dose or booster shot.