Hospitalizations climb in BC’s latest weekly COVID-19 update

The BC Centre for Disease Control has released its weekly COVID-19 update, reporting seven new deaths in the Island Health region and 27 province-wide.

The report released Thursday shows that between April 10th to 16th, BC saw 2,036 new cases of COVID-19, including 379 in Island Health, bumping the island’s total case count to 34,133 since the pandemic began.

Currently, BC’s COVID-19 Dashboard shows 485 people in hospital with the virus, an increase of over 100 from the previous week. Across the province, 38 people are in critical care, with 66 in hospital on Vancouver Island.

The seven additional deaths in Island Health increased the region’s overall COVID-19 death toll to over 250, but health officials note changes have been made to how these deaths are reported.

All deaths within 30 days of a person’s positive COVID-19 lab result are now reported, regardless of whether COVID-19 was the actual cause of death.

“All-cause mortality is being used because cause of death takes approximately eight weeks to be recorded,” the BCCDC said.

“Retrospective evaluations of underlying cause of death will be done by the BCCDC, in addition to the data provided in this report, to better understand true COVID-19 mortality.”

SEE ALSO: Here’s what you can expect when BC switches to weekly COVID-19 updates

BC scrapped its daily COVID-19 reports on new cases, hospitalizations and deaths earlier this month. 

According to the Ministry of Health, the new weekly COVID-19 reporting approach aligns with a shift away from a ‘case-management’ model to a ‘surveillance’ approach.

Officials say the approach focuses on identifying changes in COVID-19 trends over time across different regions of the province, similar to how the government monitors for other serious respiratory illnesses.