A week after hitting its highest level since October, the number of people in B.C. hospitals with COVID-19 declined to its lowest level in about a month this week.
As of Thursday, there were 349 test-positive patients in hospital, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control's weekly update. That's down from 374 during the previous week.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in B.C. hospitals on Thursdays since the province switched to a "hospital census" model for counting them is shown. (CTV)
The total number of COVID-19 patients in hospital at a given time in B.C. includes both those with serious cases of the disease requiring medical treatment and those who are hospitalized for other reasons and test positive incidentally.
Health officials estimate that between 40 and 50 per cent of hospitalizations are caused by COVID-19, while the rest are incidental.
Since the BCCDC began counting hospitalizations this way in January 2022, there have been as many as 985 patients in hospital on a Thursday and as few as 255. Since August, however, the total hasn't gone above 400.
COVID-19 has featured less prominently in messages from provincial officials this winter as the prevalence of other respiratory illnesses has surged.
In its update Thursday, the BCCDC said influenza was the most-detected virus in the provincial population during the week of Dec. 11 to 17.
"Influenza activity remains high, but it is declining," the centre's "key messages" document reads.
"RSV activity continues to increase. SARS-CoV-2 activity, the virus that causes COVID-19, remains relatively stable, with some signs of increase in wastewater data. Other seasonal respiratory viruses also continue to be present in the community."
The weekly update on COVID-19 cases included 609 new, lab-confirmed infections recorded during the week that ended Dec. 17. That's a slight decline from the 659 recorded during the preceding week, though it should be noted that official case counts do not reflect the actual number of infections in the province because of limited testing.
Experts estimate that B.C. undercounts its COVID-19 cases by roughly 100-fold, meaning 609 new positive lab tests would equate to roughly 60,900 actual infections during the week in question.
B.C. administered 48,982 new doses of COVID-19 vaccines during the week that ended Dec. 17, the lowest weekly total since mid-September, before the province's "fall booster" campaign began.
In recent weeks, greater emphasis has been placed on vaccination against influenza, with the BCCDC announcing Friday that early data on the effectiveness of the vaccine shows it reduced the risk of illness by about half during the flu season's early peak this year.
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