COVID-19 update: B.C. reports 9 deaths, upwards of 1,000 hospitalizations

The B.C. government announced nine new deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday, as the number of test-positive patients in hospital exceeded 1,000 once again.

The update from the Ministry of Health pushed the province's seven-day average for coronavirus-related fatalities to 10.14 per day, the highest it's been since January 2021. All nine of the latest deaths were reported in the Fraser Health region.

There are now 1,035 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across the province, down from B.C.'s all-time high of 1,054 announced Monday. That includes both patients whose COVID-19 infections are serious enough to merit hospitalization and those who were hospitalized for some other reason and tested positive incidentally.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care increased slightly, to 139.

Earlier in the day, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry revealed the rate of hospital admissions has started to decline across every age group, following weeks behind confirmed case numbers started trending downward.

"It does look like we are at our peak of hospitalizations," Henry said. "And this is where we would expect to be, given the modelling that we've been using to help us understand the trajectory."

Case numbers have not been considered accurate since officials started discouraging most healthy people from getting tested. There have been other indications that transmission is declining, however, including test-positivity rates and wastewater testing.

The Ministry of Health announced 1,236 cases Tuesday, bringing the province's seven-day average down to 1,652 per day – still significantly higher than the peak of the third wave last April.

Two more health-care facility outbreaks have been declared, at Tsawaayuus Rainbow Gardens and Berwick on The Lake, while six others have ended. That leaves 55 active outbreaks across B.C.'s health system, most in long-term care homes.

Officials recently confirmed about 40 per cent of COVID-19 deaths recorded this month have involved seniors in care. Most of the others have involved older people with underlying illness, a "high proportion" of whom aren't vaccinated, according to Henry.

The unvaccinated continue to be over-represented in B.C.'s hospitalization numbers, making up 26.3 per cent of COVID-19 patients between Jan. 17 and 30, adjusting for age, despite representing less than 14 per cent of the population.

So far, 89.9 per cent of eligible B.C. residents age five or older have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 84 per cent have received two. Booster shots have also been administered to 49.7 per cent of adults.