COVID cases in B.C. hospitals hold steady as test positivity trends downward

The number of COVID-19 cases in B.C. hospitals has held steady for another week.

As of Nov. 10, there were 290 confirmed cases in hospital, up just four from last Thursday, and 26 cases in critical care, down one from the week prior, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

B.C.’s hospitalization model counts all cases in hospital, regardless of their reason for admission.

B.C. health officials release a number of other data metrics on Thursdays, though they are of increasingly little utility in ascertaining  true spread of the virus in the community.

The BCCDC reported just 407 new cases for the week ending Nov. 5. However that number only includes lab-confirmed cases of the virus, and molecular testing has not been available for most British Columbians since last December.

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Just 6,490 lab tests were performed for the week ending Nov. 5. However those tests did appear to show a positive trend in test-positivity, which fell to 8.6 per cent province-wide, down from 10.8 per cent last week and a recent peak of 13.5 in mid-October.

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Test positivity was trending downward in all health authorities, but remained at a troubling 17.1 per cent in the Interior and 14 per cent on Vancouver Island.

For the week ending Nov. 5, there were 124 hospital admission across B.C. That data is preliminary, and hospital admissions are typically revised upward by more than 20 per cent the following week.

Tracking COVID deaths also remains a significant challenge.

The BCCDC reported 20 deaths for the week ending Nov. 5, but like hospital admissions, this number is typically revised upward the following week. The figure also overestimates deaths, because it includes all fatalities that occur within a week of someone’s first positive COVID test.

Subsequent BCCDC review has found that an average of just four in 10 deaths reported this way were actually caused by COVID-19. The agency says it takes about eight weeks to determine a true cause of death.

Of the 1,530 “COVID-19 deaths” reported since April 1, later review has found 594 were caused by the virus, 763 were not and 173 remained under investigation.

Of the deaths actually caused by COVID, 532, or 89 per cent, were among people aged 70 and older.

The BCCDC’s latest situation report confirms at least 113 COVID-19 deaths occurred between Aug. 1 and Sept. 11, an average of about 2.7 per day.