COVID-19 in B.C.: Hospitalizations stable after recent increase

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After a sharp increase in the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in B.C. last week, the total remained essentially unchanged Thursday.

There were 237 test-positive patients in B.C. hospitals this week, down three from the 240 reported last week, but still above the low point hit last month.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C. on Thursdays in 2023 is shown. (CTV)

Hospitalization totals include both those who have serious cases of COVID-19 requiring medical care and those who are admitted to hospital for other reasons and test positive after admission.

These "incidental" hospitalizations typically make up between 50 and 60 per cent of the total reported by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control each week, according to health officials.

Before January 2022, the BCCDC attempted to separate incidental hospitalizations from those caused by the coronavirus, reporting only the latter number.

Since switching to the current "hospital census" model, the province has reported as many as 985 and as few as 188 test-positive COVID-19 patients in hospitals on Thursdays.

The number of people in B.C. hospitals with COVID-19 on Thursdays since the province switched to a "hospital census" model for counting them in January 2022 is shown. (CTV)

OTHER DATA

The weekly hospital census provides a snapshot of the impact COVID-19 is having on the health-care system, and it's the only data the BCCDC releases that is up-to-date, rather than tied to the last Sunday-to-Saturday "epidemiological week."

It's not the only data health officials use to assess the situation in the province, however.

Other data available on the BCCDC's Respiratory Diseases dashboard is a mixed bag this week. 

It shows 405 new, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province during the epidemiological week of Feb. 19 to 25, the highest total reported since January. 

This case count does not reflect the full spread of COVID-19 in B.C. Rather, it includes only lab-based tests, which are only available to a small segment of the population that has symptoms. 

Alongside the official case count, wastewater surveillance data helps capture the trend in transmission among the general population. 

The wastewater data available Thursday afternoon had not yet been updated for this week, but it showed coronavirus concentrations increasing at the Northwest Langley treatment plant, but declining at all of the other ones in Metro Vancouver.

Outside the Lower Mainland, concentrations were falling in Penticton, but rising in Kamloops, Kelowna and the three Vancouver Island communities with wastewater surveillance (Victoria, Nanaimo and the Comox Valley)

The BCCDC also reports on the share of visits to health-care practitioners across the province that are for symptoms of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

After surging in November and December, this metric has fallen significantly in recent weeks for all of the illnesses tracked, with suspected COVID-19 accounting for less than half of one per cent of all health-care visits in the province since mid-January.