BC reports 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 Centers for Disease Control (BCCDC).
On Thursday, 473 people are in hospital with the new coronavirus, 42 of whom are in critical care, he said. the COVID-19 control panel in the province.
It represents a 12.4% drop in total hospitalizations since last Thursday when the province reported 540 people hospitalized. The number of ICU patients has dropped by 14.2% from 49 a week ago.
However, setting clear trends from the province’s weekly data is problematic. Figures issued in a given week are subject to review and are often adjusted retroactively, sometimes changing significantly at the time the next reports are published.
Much of the provincial data, which includes cases, hospital admissions and deaths and is at least five days old, is in weekly reports of the BC Center for Disease Control (BCCDC).
Between May 15 and 21, BC health officials say 42 people died within 30 days of testing positive for COVID-19.
This number differs from the previous method of reporting deaths, which saw all suspected cases of COVID tested by the virus. Now, all those who died within a month after a positive test are counted in the official count, whether the disease has been confirmed as a contributing factor or not.
The figure is likely to change next week as well. During the last reporting period, the province said that Between May 8 and 14, 59 people had died.
This total has been adjusted retroactively in recent numbers 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 so far.
This represents a 17 percent drop from the previous week’s count of retroactive cases of 1,644.
However, as PCR testing is quite limited, the BCCDC notes that the weekly case count probably underestimates the actual number of cases.
Many BC organizations, including BC Ferries, report staff shortages due to the spread of the virus.
A slight drop in people who give positive
The number of people who have tested positive has fallen slightly throughout the province. A total of 8.6% of all PCR tests returned positive to BC on May 21, compared to 9.7% the previous week.
Positive 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 official, said anything above a five percent test positive rate is an indicator of a more worrying level of transmission.
A total of 282 people were admitted to hospital between May 15 and 21 by COVID-19.
According to the BCCDC regional board, unvaccinated people were about twice as likely to require hospitalization in the last month as someone with three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, four times more likely to require critical care and 1.47 times more likely to require hospitalization. more likely to die.