'Technical issue' cancels BCCDC's weekly COVID update

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)

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control says a "technical issue" prevented it from providing its weekly COVID-19 data update Thursday.

"The COVID-19 Situation Report dashboard will not be updated this week," the centre says on its respiratory illness landing page.

Data on COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths will therefore not be available until next Thursday, Jan. 18.

All of the BCCDC's other respiratory illness data was updated Thursday, as normal. Those dashboards indicate that there were 552 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed through lab testing during the most recent epidemiological week, which ended Jan. 6.

That's an increase of more than 22 per cent from the 451 newly confirmed infections reported last week for the period of Dec. 24 through 30.

These totals reflect only lab-based tests funded by the provincial government, and are not a representative count of the total number of infections in B.C. during the weeks in question.

Still, the increasing trend in lab-confirmed cases suggests increased transmission overall, as does this week's wastewater surveillance data, which shows increasing concentrations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at most treatment plants, with particularly noticeable upticks at the Annacis Island and Lulu Island facilities in the Lower Mainland. 

At a news conference on respiratory illness season Wednesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry described 2024 as a "transition year" for COVID-19.

While other respiratory illnesses – including influenza and RSV – have largely resumed the seasonal pattern they followed in B.C. before the pandemic, COVID has not fallen into an established pattern, Henry said.

"It's not clear yet what pattern this virus is going to take," she said.

Health officials expect transmission of other respiratory viruses to peak this week. They noted Wednesday that the steady presence of COVID, high seasonal circulation of flu and RSV, and the resumption of surgeries after the holidays had combined to set an all-time record for hospital occupancy in the province.