There was a sharp uptick over the weekend in the number of people in B.C. hospitalized with COVID-19.
B.C. hospitals now have 288 COVID-19 patients, up 28, or more than 10.7% from 260 on Friday. The number of COVID-19 infections severe enough to be in hospital had declined in 30 consecutive government data updates, up until March 22, when 254 such patients were in the province's hospitals. Of those now in hospitals with COVID-19, 48 are in intensive care units (ICUs.)
Six additional people who had COVID-19 have died in B.C. in the past three days, raising the province's death toll to 2,989.
Some good news is that were no new health-care facility or seniors' home outbreaks identified in the past three days. The outbreak at Hillside Village, in Salmon Arm, has been declared over, for a total of six such facilities with ongoing outbreaks.
Officials detected 556 new infections in the past three days. The positive-test rate has been holding steady at between five and six per cent in each of the last few data updates.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, however, has told vaccinated people with mild symptoms to not get tested so as to free up tests for those who are more vulnerable. As a result she has called the daily case counts "not accurate."
The B.C. government on Feb. 10 stopped providing data for active infections, and the number of those considered to have recovered from COVID-19, for that reason.
Victoria does, however, still provide data for new known infections, and its cumulative total for infections is now 355,648.
Vaccinations help limit the spread of the disease that spawned a global pandemic, and help reduce the seriousness of infections that do occur.
The vast majority of British Columbians are already vaccinated.
In total, 4,527,693 eligible B.C. residents have had at least one dose of vaccine, while 4,350,266 are considered fully vaccinated with two doses, and 2,661,745 have had three doses.
Recent Statistics Canada 2021 census data counted 5,000,879 residents in B.C.
Glacier Media's calculation therefore is that more than 90.5 per cent of B.C.'s total population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and almost 87% per cent of the province's total population has had two doses. More than 53.2 per cent have had their third, or booster doses. •
