COVID-19: Another 13 deaths in B.C. as hospitalization numbers hold steady

British Columbia reported another 13 COVID-19-related deaths Thursday, as the number of patients in hospital continued to hover close to 1,000.

Health officials said there were 977 COVID-positive patients in hospital, including 141 people in critical or intensive care.

The number of people in hospital with COVID has held within 900-1,000 range since last Friday.

Officials reported another 2,033 confirmed new cases and 29,556 confirmed active cases, however case counts are no longer seen as an accurate measure of the virus’ spread, due to limits on testing.

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As of Thursday, 86.8 per cent of all British Columbians ( per cent of those eligible) have had one dose of vaccine, 81 per cent of B.C.’s population ( per cent of those eligible) has had two doses, and 38.7 per cent of the province’s population ( per cent of those eligible) have had three doses.

The province said its usual update on the breakdown of cases and hospitalizations by vaccine status was not available Thursday due to a delay in refreshed data.

There were new outbreaks at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and Nanaimo Seniors Village, while an outbreak at Kelowna General Hospital was declared over.

Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 318,906 total cases, while 2,588 people have died.

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