Total hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C. climbs in latest weekly update
The number of people with COVID-19 in B.C. hospitals rose this week, while other data released Thursday by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control was a mixed bag.
There were 263 test-positive COVID patients in provincial hospitals Thursday, up from 244 last week, an increase of 7.7 per cent.
The number of people with COVID-19 reported in hospital in each update from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control in 2023 so far is seen. (CTV)
CTV News tracks the number of people currently in hospital because it is the only data about COVID-19 that the BCCDC releases in real time.
All of the other data reported Thursday is from the most recent "epidemiological week," which stretched from Nov. 5 to 11.
There were 475 new lab-confirmed infections in the province during that period, a decrease from the 540 recorded the week before.
The test positivity rate also declined during the week that ended Nov. 11, dropping to 14.2 per cent from 15.9 per cent the week before.
Testing in B.C. is limited, however. It neither captures every new case of COVID-19 contracted in the province, nor is it intended to. Rather, it captures the trend in infections among those who qualify for provincially funded, lab-based testing.
To get an approximate sense of how much the coronavirus is circulating among the vast majority of B.C. residents who do not qualify for lab-based testing, officials monitor the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from various treatment plants across the province.
Unlike the test-based data, wastewater data shows increasing virus concentrations as of Nov. 11 at the five monitored treatment plants in the Lower Mainland.
In the Interior, wastewater concentrations had jumped significantly as of that date in Kamloops, while they were declining in Kelowna and Penticton.
Prince George and Victoria also saw increased levels of the coronavirus in their wastewater in the latest update, while data from Nanaimo and the Comox Valley has not been updated since September.
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