Thursday, March 28, 2024

Island Health sees seven deaths in latest weekly COVID-19 update

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The BC Centre for Disease Control has released its weekly COVID-19 update, reporting seven new deaths in the Vancouver Island Health Authority and 23 province-wide.

The report released Thursday shows that between April 3rd to 9th, BC saw 1,770 new cases of COVID-19, including 322 in Island Health, bumping the island’s total case count to 33,754 since the pandemic began.

Currently, BC’s COVID-19 Dashboard shows 364 people are in hospital with the virus, including 36 in critical care. Forty-seven people are in hospital on Vancouver Island.

The seven additional deaths in Island Health increased the region’s overall COVID-19 death toll to 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 last week. 

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.

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