Number hospitalized with COVID-19 drops as BCCDC returns to weekly reporting

The exterior of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control office in Vancouver is seen in this photo from the centre's website. (bccdc.ca)

After hitting its highest point in more than a year last week, the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in British Columbia has come down slightly, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

The centre reported 397 COVID patients in B.C. hospitals in its return to weekly updates Thursday. That's a slight decrease – about six per cent – from the 422 patients the BCCDC reported last week.

Thursday's total is still the second-highest reported all year, and higher than every hospital population reported by the BCCDC between Aug. 4, 2022, and last week.

The number of people reported in hospital with COVID-19 in every public release from the BCCDC in 2023 so far is shown. (CTV)

Thursday's decrease is the first one the BCCDC has reported since early August, though the agency only recently switched back to weekly reports. It provided monthly reports over the summer and biweekly reports in September.

While it remains to be seen whether the hospitalized population continues to decline, a few other indicators reported Thursday suggest the latest wave of coronavirus infections has peaked.

The BCCDC reported fewer positive provincial-government-funded tests this week than it did last week. It also reported a lower positivity rate for the tests that were conducted.

Thursday's update showed 807 new, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 for the last "epidemiological week," which ended Oct. 7. There were 885 new infections during the preceding period.

Likewise, 20 per cent of tests came back positive during the week that ended Oct. 7, according to the BCCDC, compared to 23.4 per cent the week before.

Wastewater surveillance, however, continues to show increasing concentrations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, at every treatment plant where data is collected.