The B.C. government says the number of people in hospitals who have tested positive for COVID-19 continues to decline for the third week in a row.
According to the dashboard, there were 421 people in hospital as of June 1, which is a decrease of 52 from the previous week’s reporting.
However, there has only been a drop of one person in intensive care over the past week, with that number now totalling 42.
Under B.C.’s “census” reporting model, all positive cases are counted regardless of the reason the patient was admitted to hospital.
The BCCDC also reported 1,163 cases for the week ending May 28, though due to restrictions on PCR testing the true figure is likely significantly higher.
British Columbia’s weekly data reporting regime also provides information on hospital admissions and deaths, though both metrics are only current as of May 28, and are typically revised upward significantly in the following weeks.
For the week ending May 28, the BCCDC reported 265 hospital admissions. The figure reported last week of 282 admission between May 15 and May 21 has now been revised to 345.
The latest weekly data reports 44 deaths between May 22 and May 28, a figure that is also preliminary and expected to be revised upward. The figure reported last week of 42 deaths between May 8 and May 14 has since been revised to 72.
Moreover, the way the province now tracks deaths, dubbed “all-cause mortality,” includes all deaths in the reporting period among those who tested positive for COVID-19 in the prior 30 days.
Health officials have said this model likely overestimates deaths, but have yet to release a promised “retrospective evaluation” to “better understand true COVID-19 mortality.”