British Columbia is reporting a decrease in COVID-19-related hospital admissions for the first time since April 7 when the move was made to weekly reports.
As of May 5, there are 550 people in hospitals with COVID. That is a decrease of 20 since last Thursday.
In addition, the number of people in intensive care has also dropped from 47 to 39.
Looking at the weekly data provided by the province, from April 24 to 30, hospital admissions dropped in all except one of the health authorities.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported in total a decrease of 43 people entering hospitals compared to the week of April 17 to 23.
In the Fraser Health region, the number dropped from 175 to 157, in the Interior Health region, the number dropped from 75 to 55, in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, the number dropped from 24 to 20 and in the Vancouver Island region, the number dropped from 69 to 53.
However, admissions in the Northern Health region rose from 75 to 90.
These numbers are accurate as of April 30 as British Columbia’s new weekly data reporting regime provides information on hospital admissions, though with a one-week delay.
The BCCDC says the hospital admissions figures are expected to rise as it collects more data.
There was a slight rise in new cases of COVID in the province between the two weeks, increasing from 2,269 total to 2,283.
The highest number of cases remains in the Fraser Health region at 867, with the lowest number of cases being in the Northern Health region at 128. However, that is also the same region where hospitalizations rose during the week.
Officials also recorded 50 fatalities over the last week.
However, B.C. is now reporting the deaths of anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 over the last month, which officials acknowledge will overestimate fatalities.
Since the start of the pandemic, British Columbia has reported a total of 365,577 cases and 3,226 deaths.
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