COVID-19 hospitalizations drop in weekly BCCDC update

The number of COVID-positive patients in B.C. hospitals declined this week, according to the latest data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

There were 148 test-positive patients in hospitals across the province as of Thursday, a decrease of 15 – or about nine per cent – from the 163 reported in hospital at this time last week.

The latest data continues the trend of relatively stable hospitalization levels seen throughout 2024 so far, with the first update of the year remaining the only one to show more than 200 COVID patients receiving hospital treatment.

That's a notable contrast to the levels seen through the first three months of 2023, when only two of the BCCDC's first 13 updates showed hospitalization totals below 200.

Indeed, last year, the agency didn't share a hospitalization total as low as this week's until June 1, when it reported 146 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Other data reported this week also showed slight downward trends, with new lab-confirmed infections, test positivity and wastewater surveillance all pointing in the same direction as the hospitalization total.

There were 392 new infections confirmed through provincial testing during the week that ended March 16, according to the data released Thursday. That's down from 467 the previous week.

The percentage of tests coming back positive also declined, dropping from 12.7 per cent to 10.9 per cent.

Those figures are based only on lab-based tests. The results of home-based rapid tests are not tracked in B.C., but concentrations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater – which can help approximate the spread of COVID-19 in the general population, including among the vast majority of British Columbians who don't qualify for lab-based tests – also dropped in most locations last week.

RSV data released by the BCCDC on Friday also showed declining cases and test positivity, while influenza cases and positivity ticked up slightly.