COVID-19 hospitalizations in B.C. have fallen in each government data update since Feb. 7, and are now down to 517 – six fewer than yesterday.
Of those, 73 people are in intensive care units (ICUs) – a number that is down 10 from yesterday, and has not been lower since Dec. 30.
Sadly, 10 more people are known to have died while fighting COVID-19. That raises the province's pandemic death toll to 2,883.
The number of active outbreaks at health-care facilities or seniors' homes has fallen to 21, from 28 yesterday. This is despite five new such outbreaks being discovered in the past 24 hours, at:
• Mission Memorial Hospital;
• Gillis House in Merritt;
• Berwick House Gordon Head in Victoria;
• The Heights at Mt. View in Victoria; and
• Greenwoods on Salt Spring Island.
Government data shows that 19.7 per cent of those infected in B.C. between Feb. 22 and Feb. 28 had not received at least two doses of vaccine, and that 34.6% of those hospitalized in B.C. between Feb. 14 and Feb. 27 were not fully vaccinated.
People who do not yet have two doses of vaccine represent about 14% of B.C.'s total population.
The more detailed data for vaccinations is that 4,517,602 eligible B.C. residents have had at least one dose of vaccine, while 4,302,285 are considered fully vaccinated with two doses, and 2,587,716 have had three doses.
Recent Statistics Canada data said that in the 2021 census, B.C.'s population had increased 7.6 per cent between 2016 and 2021, and that the new total number of residents was 5,000,879.
Glacier Media's calculation therefore is that just over 90.3 per cent of B.C.'s total population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and 86 per cent of the province's total population has had two doses. More than 51.7 per cent have had their booster doses.
Health officials have been telling vaccinated people with mild symptoms to self-isolate and not get tested in order to reserve testing capacity for those who have more serious cases or who are clinically vulnerable. As a result, Henry has called case count data "not accurate," and the province has stopped reporting data for how many people in B.C. they believe are actively infected, and how many are thought to have recovered.
The province still reports the number of presumed new cases, and in the past day officials have confirmed 442 new cases. There were 6,928 tests conducted, meaning that there was a 6.4% positive-test rate for the day.
There are thought to have been at least 349,213 British Columbians who have contracted COVID-19 since the first case was detected in late January 2020. •
