The number of people admitted to the ICU, infected by COVID-19, has grown during the last week | Rob Kruyt, BIV
The number of serious COVID-19 infections that have sent British Columbians to hospital has seen little movement over the past week, according to data released Thursday by the BC Center for Disease Control.
Hospitalizations have dropped to 401 people, as of July 21, compared to a week earlier, when 406 people in the province were hospitalized.
But the number of people in intensive care units grew by 30 to 35 during the same one-week period.
Twenty-nine people were reported to have died while infected with COVID-19, up from 21 who died a week earlier.
The death total includes all people who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days and then died. This calculation may include people who tested positive and then died in car accidents.
Government data shows a total of 3,908 British Columbians have died while infected with COVID-19, up 53 from the previous week, although the province reported 29 deaths.
The BC government’s process is supposed to include all deaths that involved people infected with COVID-19 in the weekly death count, as well as the total number of deaths. Then, at a future date, we want to remove from the total number of deaths those in which the province’s Vital Statistics Agency determines that the death is not due to COVID-19.
Instead, for months the number of new deaths has been lower than the number of deaths added to the total number of deaths from COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health has not given any explanation for this discrepancy to the BIV’s question.
The ministry has previously said the weekly death count “may be incomplete,” but the BC Center for Disease Control and the province have not released updated figures.
Meanwhile, the latest government data reveals that 921 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the last one-week period. This is down from the 1,044 cases reported a week earlier.
Data on new infections, however, has long been widely dismissed, with even provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry earlier this year calling the information “inaccurate.” That’s because in December it began telling people who were vaccinated and had mild symptoms not to get tested and to self-isolate. He said at the time that this was to increase testing capacity for those with more severe symptoms and those who are most vulnerable.
Testing is now only recommended in cases where knowing the test result could change treatment recommendations.
—With files from Glen Korstrom
torton@biv.com
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