Slight drop in number of people most sick with COVID in B.C.

The number of people in hospital with a COVID diagnosis and the number in intensive care units both dropped in the last 24 hours, according to a Province of B.C. news release issued today, Feb. 9.

The number of people in hospital with a COVID positive test is fell to 893 today from 987 yesterday while the 143 people in intensive care is three fewer than yesterday.

About half the of people in hospital with a COVID diagnosis were not in there because of COVID but were tested after going to hospital for things like surgery, delivering a baby or being admitted to a mental health unit.

The number of new COVID cases in B.C. over the last 24 hours rose to 1,187 from 1,117 yesterday, with 370 of them being in the Interior Health region.

The real number in hospital is estimated to be three to four times higher because many people infected with COVID are not getting tested or take rapid tests that are not recorded in these figures.

There were 316 new cases in Fraser Health, 140 in Vancouver Coastal, 163 on Vancouver Island and 191 in the Northern Health region.

There were 18 new deaths, including two in Interior Health, bringing the pandemic total to 2,725.

READ MORE: B.C. not an 'outlier' when it comes to vaccine passports: Dr. Henry

There are 21,974 known active cases in B.C.

The vaccination rate for people over the age of 12 remained unchanged at 93% with at least one dose as did the 90.4% with at least two doses while 50.6% have three doses.

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