British Columbia reported another 18 COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, as the number of positive cases in hospital dipped below 1,000.
B.C. health officials reported 988 cases in hospital, an overnight decrease of 47, including 136 cases in critical or intensive care.
The new fatalities, which included one person in their 50s, brought B.C.’s COVID death toll to 2,643. Of those deaths, 220 have been recorded in 2022.
Wednesday was the second day in a row cases in hospital dropped.
On Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said more than 60 per cent of those in hospital had tested positive after being admitted for other reasons, and that people who were being treated for the Omicron variant were going home in about half the time as those who had been admitted with Delta.
Officials confirmed 1,776 new cases Wednesday and an active case count of 25,959, however those numbers do not reflect the true spread of the virus due to limits on testing.
Officials said 87.1 per cent of B.C.’s population (90 per cent of those eligible) had had one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 81.4 per cent of B.C.’s population (84.1 per cent of those eligible) had had two doses, and 42.3 per cent of B.C.’s population (47 per cent of those eligible) had received three doses.
Fully vaccinated people made up 74.8 per cent of cases over the past week and 68.3 per cent of people in hospital over the past two weeks.
However, unvaccinated people continue to be at a higher risk of severe outcomes.
Per 100,000 population, there were 81.1 unvaccinated people in hospital over the past two weeks, compared to 17.5 fully vaccinated.
Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has reported 327,627 cases in total.