Statistics
As of today, the BC CDC weekly report said that in the week ending on 22 October there were: +534 confirmed cases, +148 hospital admissions, +26 ICU admissions, +44 all-cause deaths.
As of today, the weekly report said that the previous week (data through 15 October September) there were: +627 confirmed cases, +229 hospital admissions, +32 ICU admissions, +46 all-cause deaths.
Last week, the BC CDC weekly report said that in the week ending on 15 October there were: +628 confirmed cases, +174 hospital admissions, +31 ICU admissions, +32 all-cause deaths.
Last week, the weekly report said that the previous week (data through 8 October September) there were: +697 confirmed cases, +237 hospital admissions, +42 ICU admissions, +44 all-cause deaths.
The BC CDC dashboard says that there are 292 in hospital / 20 in ICU as of 27 October 2022.
Influenza
While it is true that in the US overall, there is a higher positivity for influenza (~4%) that is normal during this time of year, in Region 10 (the US Pacific Northwest) the positivity is low/normalish right now for this time of year. See the US CDC FluView Interactive but remember that they are doing about 3.5 times as many influenza tests as they did pre-pandemic.
Another data point is the BC CDC influenza situation reports. Last season, they started coming out on 9 October. This year, they haven’t started issuing them yet. That makes me think that there’s not much circulating here yet. (Maybe the warm October let us have windows open for longer?) So maybe it is not urgent to get your flu shot? (At least not yet. You should definitely get one, but maybe you don’t need to get it today?)
Recommended Reading
This article talks about Public Health’s assertion that schools were not a driver of transmission. It casts doubt upon that.
Charts
From the BC CDC wastewater web page (caution that the scales are different):
From the BC CDC Situation Report web page:
From the 20 October 2022 BC CDC Variants of Concern report:
