More cases of 'Kraken' variant detected in B.C., but province has good protection, officials say

B.C.'s top doctor says the province has confirmed more cases of the so-called "Kraken" variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, but it is not currently the strain responsible for most infections in B.C.

There have been 24 cases of the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 confirmed through whole-genome sequencing in B.C. so far, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said at a news conference in Vancouver Friday.

She estimated that the subvariant currently accounts for five to six per cent of cases the province is sequencing. The vast majority of cases – about 95 per cent – are still the BQ.1.1 subvariant, Henry said.

While she stressed that the 24 confirmed XBB.1.5 infections are just the ones that have been sequenced, not the total number that have likely been contracted in the province, Henry also sought to minimize people's concerns about the new subvariant.

"All of these are subvariants of Omicron, and I think that's really, really important," the provincial health officer said.

"While this XBB.1.5 has garnered a lot of attention, it still remains a subvariant of Omicron."

That means British Columbians are well equipped to deal with it, according to Henry.

She said B.C.'s population has high levels of protection from all Omicron strains because of vaccination and previous infection, and added that there's no evidence that XBB.1.5 is causing more severe illness than previous subvariants.

"We must remember that these new strains may make us more vulnerable to infection, but they don't render us defenceless," Henry said. "We are no longer in the place where we needed to take extraordinary measures because everybody was susceptible and many, many people could get seriously ill, need hospital care or die."

She added that precautions like staying home when sick, using proper "respiratory etiquette" (covering coughs and sneezes, properly disposing of tissues, regular hand-washing), and wearing a mask in crowded spaces or places with poor ventilation will help limit the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

"It is important to continue to take measures to protect ourselves and others from respiratory viruses and other infections," Henry said, adding that getting vaccinated – particularly with the Omicron-targeting bivalent vaccines – is the most important protective measure to take.

Friday's update from Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix comes one week after Dix announced that B.C. would be reopening emergency operations centres at 20 hospitals to deal with surging demand. 

The emergency operations centres were initially put in place to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but COVID-19 has been less of a concern this winter than other respiratory illnesses.

As of Thursday, there were 302 people in hospital with the coronavirus, on the low end of the range the province has been seeing over the last six months, despite concerns about the spread of the so-called "Kraken" variant.

Hospitals overall remain above their standard capacity. As of Friday, there were 10,106 people hospitalized for all causes across the province. Including 2,500 surge beds, B.C. has 11,680 hospital beds available, overall.

This means hospitals were operating at roughly 87 per cent of their maximum capacity, including surge beds, or 110 per cent of their baseline capacity, as of Friday.