COVID-19 infections serious enough to land patients in B.C. hospitals continued their steady decline today, with hospitalizations down by 14, to 405 – the 21st consecutive decline in a government data update.
Of those, 58 are sick enough to be in intensive care units (ICUs), which down by five from yesterday and is the fewest since August 19, nearly seven months ago.
Sadly, some of the room in ICUs may have come from 14 more recorded deaths in the past day. The government does not reveal details of new deaths, such as ages, or whether the person was in hospital. Health officials said last month that about 40% of recent COVID-19 deaths are in seniors' care homes or living facilities.
B.C.'s known death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 2,929.
New infections have dwindled, as the 200 new cases yesterday was the fewest in more than seven months. Today, the government announced 274 new infections from 5,804 tests for a 4.89% positive-test rate.
In total, 351,415 people are known to have contracted COVID-19 in B.C. since the first case was detected in late January, 2020.
A new outbreak at Luther Court in Victoria increases the number of known outbreaks at seniors' homes or health-care facilities to 15.
Unvaccinated people are at a larger risk of getting infected, and of landing in hospital with COVID-19 than are those who are vaccinated.
Government data shows that 18.7 per cent of those infected in B.C. between March 1 and March 7 had not received at least two doses of vaccine, and that 30.4% of those hospitalized in B.C. between Feb. 22 and March 7 were not fully vaccinated.
People who do not yet have two doses of vaccine represent slightly more than 13.7% of B.C.'s total population.
The more detailed data for vaccinations is that 4,521,087 eligible B.C. residents have had at least one dose of vaccine, while 4,315,064 are considered fully vaccinated with two doses, and 2,610,544 have had three doses.
Recent Statistics Canada data said that in the 2021 census, B.C.'s population had increased 7.6 per cent between 2016 and 2021, and that the new total number of residents was 5,000,879.
Glacier Media's calculation therefore is that slightly more than 90.4 per cent of B.C.'s total population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and almost 86.3 per cent of the province's total population has had two doses. More than 52.2 per cent have had their booster doses. •
