COVID-19 deaths confirmed in every age group but one since April, B.C. statistics show

A sign at the BC Centre for Disease Control is seen in this photo from the BCCDC website.

At least 363 people have died of COVID-19 in B.C. since April 2, including at least one person in every age group except those 10 to 19, according to the province's Vital Statistics agency.

The data reported in the B.C. Centre for Disease Control's latest situation report shows people ages 80 and older continue to make up the vast majority of deaths caused by COVID-19. The median age of COVID-caused deaths in the province is 85.

But the elderly are not the only people who have died from the disease in the last four months. The Vital Statistics data shows COVID-19 was identified as the underlying cause of death for one child under age 10, one person in their 20s, one person in their 30s, one person in their 40s, three people in their 50s, 30 people in their 60s and 73 people in their 70s between April 2 and July 30.

April 2 is when the province made the transition to reporting "30-day, all-cause mortality" in its COVID-19 data. Before that date, the province attributed deaths to COVID-19 based on reporting by health authorities at the time of death.

The new counting method automatically flags every person who dies within 30 days of a positive COVID-19 test, and leaves it to Vital Statistics to determine whether the coronavirus was the underlying cause of death, a process that can take eight weeks.

Between April 2 and July 30, according to the BCCDC, there were 962 possible COVID-19 deaths reported to Vital Statistics in this way. Of those, 108 were still pending an underlying cause determination from the agency.

Of the remaining 854, a total of 363 were determined to have been caused by the coronavirus. That's roughly 43 per cent of the total.

The 363 COVID-caused deaths during the period equate to a little more than three deaths per day.

That's more than triple the number of people who die in motor vehicle accidents each day in B.C., on average, according to ICBC data, but it's less than half the number of people who died from illicit drug overdoses each day during the month of May.