Number hospitalized with COVID-19 drops for 4th straight week in B.C.

A sign at the BC Centre for Disease Control is seen in this photo from the BCCDC website.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C. declined again this week, though not as dramatically as it had been dropping since early October.

There were 241 people in hospital with the disease as of Thursday, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. That's a decrease of about eight per cent from the 263 reported in hospital last Thursday.

The number of people in B.C. hospitals with COVID-19 in 2023, as reported by the BCCDC, is shown. (CTV)

The number of people the BCCDC reports in hospital with COVID-19 each week includes both those who are hospitalized because of serious cases of the disease and those who are hospitalized for other reasons and test positive after admission.

Health officials estimate that roughly 40 per cent of reported hospitalizations are caused by the coronavirus, while the rest are incidental.

The BCCDC describes hospitalization totals as "elevated" in its update Thursday, despite their recent decline. 

The number of lab-confirmed infections has also been declining in recent weeks. The BCCDC reported 457 new positive tests during the epidemiological week of Oct. 22 to 28, down from 574 the week before.

Those totals don't reflect every case of COVID-19 contracted in the province during the weeks in question. Rather, they include only those who tested positive in a publicly funded, lab-based test.

The vast majority of B.C. residents don't qualify for lab-based testing under the province's current strategy, and the results of home-based, rapid-antigen tests are not collected in B.C.

Still, the decline in positive results on lab-based tests suggests a decrease in COVID-19 transmission in the province, at least among the groups that are prioritized for testing.

The percentage of tests coming back positive also declined during the week that ended Oct. 28, dropping to 15.3 per cent from 16.6 per cent the week before.

WASTEWATER DATA

To get a sense of transmission among the large swathe of the public that doesn't qualify for lab-based tests, the BCCDC also monitors coronavirus concentrations in wastewater. 

In the Lower Mainland, the latest updates continue to show increasing percentages of SARS-CoV-2 at all treatment plants, but the increases themselves are small. All five plants saw an increase of five per cent or less in the most recent update, dated Oct. 29.

Elsewhere in the province, results are mixed. Kamloops saw decreasing coronavirus concentrations in its latest update, while Kelowna saw a slight increase and Penticton was flat.

Updates to Vancouver Island wastewater surveillance seem to have stalled, with large numbers of samples excluded from the datasets in Victoria, Nanaimo and the Comox Valley.

Prince George saw an increase of six per cent in its most recent update, which is dated Oct. 22.