The latest data from the BC Center for Disease Control shows the number of coronavirus-positive patients has decreased in most health authority areas since last week and has remained the same in Vancouver’s coastal health.
At Fraser Health, that number rose from 122 to 151 – an increase of about 24 per cent.
Fraser Health is the most populous health authority area in the province and has seen larger fluctuations in hospitalization numbers than others since the government began releasing data on a weekly basis in April.
Hospitalization totals now include both patients admitted for severe COVID-19 infection and those admitted for other reasons who test positive by chance.
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units dropped to 22 on Thursday.
Tracking coronavirus deaths is more complicated since BC switched to a “30-day, all-cause” mortality reporting system, which includes every person who died within 30 days of testing positive for COVID-19 in weekly total. Vital Statistics then works to determine whether the coronavirus was the underlying cause of their death, a process that can take up to eight weeks.
The BCCDC tentatively reported 22 deaths for the week ending Sept. 3.
There were 617 laboratory-confirmed cases of the coronavirus reported that week, a total that reflects only people tested using PCR tests and cases epidemiologically linked to them.
Since the vast majority of BC residents with COVID-19 symptoms do not qualify for PCR testing under current guidelines, the weekly total is a fraction of actual transmission in the province – and independent modelers recently estimated the number of cases to be likely to be reduced by 100-fold.
However, the number of reported cases has been declining for weeks. Hospital admissions have also seen an overall decline of about 24 percent since mid-July.
However, levels of COVID-19 in Metro Vancouver’s sewage — another method used to get a rough sense of transmission — have been less promising in recent reports.
The latest COVID-19 Status Report from the BCCDC notes that viral loads have “stabilized or begun to increase in some plants after falling from their most recent peak in late June or early July.” That includes the Vancouver and northwest Langley plants, which saw increases of 82 percent and 51 percent, respectively. The report does not include the Lions Gate plant, citing new concerns about unexpected volatility in the readings.
“This may be due to unique characteristics of the plant operation, although the exact cause is under investigation. While under investigation, we have not included trends in this data,” it says.
The province administered another 20,464 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3, or about 2,923 per day. The biggest increase – 8,301 – was in the second boosters.
Now that Health Canada has approved Moderna’s bivalent vaccine targeting Omicron, the BC government expects to administer about 280,000 new doses per week until the end of September.
Officials unveiled their fall boost plans earlier this week, confirming earlier appointments will be given to residents at higher risk of serious infection, such as the immunocompromised, and those who have waited longer than their last dose.
