COVID hospitalizations in B.C. continue downward trend

The number of people in B.C. hospitals with COVID-19 dropped slightly over the past 24 hours to 405 today from 419 yesterday.

The number in intensive care units dropped to 58 from 63 but the number of new cases in B.C. grew slightly to 274 from 254.

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.

Of the new cases, 84 were in Interior Health, 48 in Fraser Health, 36 in Vancouver Coastal, 77 on Vancouver Island and 29 in the Northern Health region.

The real number of cases 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.

Fourteen more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours but none in the Interior Health region, bringing the pandemic death toll to 2,929, according to a Ministry of Health news release issued today, March 9.

The vaccination rate for people over the age of 12 with at least one dose remains unchanged at 93.3%, as does the 90.8% who have at least two doses while 56.3% have three doses.

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