BC is reporting a drop in COVID-19 hospitalizations for the second week in a row and 42 more deaths, according to preliminary weekly data released by the BC Center for Disease Control (BCCDC).
As of Thursday, 473 people are hospitalized with the novel coronavirus, 42 of whom are in critical care, according to COVID-19 province dashboard.
It represents a 12.4 percent drop in overall hospitalizations since last Thursday, when the province reported 540 people in hospital. The number of ICU patients is down 14.2 percent from 49 a week ago.
However, establishing clear trends from weekly data for the province is problematic. The numbers issued in a given week are subject to revision and are often retroactively adjusted, sometimes changing significantly when the next reports are released.
Much of the provincial data, which includes cases, hospital admissions and deaths and is at least five days old, is in weekly reports from the BC Center for Disease Control (BCCDC).
Between May 15 and 21, BC health officials say 42 people have died within 30 days of testing positive for COVID-19.
That number differs from the previous method of reporting deaths, in which all suspected COVID cases were tested for the virus. Now, everyone who died within a month of a positive test is counted in the official count, whether or not the disease has been confirmed as a contributing factor.
The number is also likely to change for the following week. During the last reported period, the province said that 59 people had died between May 8 and 14.
That total has been retroactively adjusted in the latest figures to 86 deaths.
The province reports 1,358 new cases between May 15 and 21, based solely on positive PCR tests, for a total of 370,559 cases to date.
That represents a 17 percent decrease from the previous week’s retroactive case count of 1,644.
However, because PCR testing is quite limited, the BCCDC notes that weekly case counts likely underestimate the actual number of cases.
Numerous organizations in BC, including BC Ferries, are reporting staffing shortages due to the spread of the virus.
Slight drop in people who tested positive
The number of people who have tested positive has seen a slight decline across the province. A total of 8.6 percent of all PCR tests came back positive in BC as of May 21, compared to 9.7 percent the previous week.
Positivity rates vary across the province, with 14.9% on Vancouver Island and 6.7% on the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, a provincial health officer, has said that a test positivity rate of more than five percent is an indicator of a more worrying level of transmission.
A total of 282 people were hospitalized between May 15 and 21 for COVID-19.
According BCCDC regional boardunvaccinated people were about twice as likely to require hospitalization in the past month as someone with three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, four times more likely to require intensive care, and 1.47 times more likely to die.
Reference-www.cbc.ca