Cases are rising in the short term but kind of flat over a longer period. Positivity is creeping upwards, and the number in hospital is rising slowly. Wastewater is going up slowly in Fraser Health, flattish everywhere else.
Anecdotally, lots of people “have a cold” right now. (It’s not “a cold”, it’s COVID-19, as I point out in this posting.)
We have slightly fewer in hospital right now than we did a year ago. I would like to remind people that the “winter peak” last year was in early October — and it looks to me like we are going to have an early October peak this year as well.
Hospitals
This article (2024-09-01) reports that five BC hospitals ER departments had closures over the long weekend: Williams Lake, 100 Mile House, Lillooet, Oliver, and Merritt.
Vaccines
Health Canada has not yet approved fall boosters, but told provinces to destroy any of the old boosters which were left around. This means a gap with no COVID-19 vaccines available for some period — except in BC. This article says that BC is keeping the old stuff around until the new vax arrives.
Statistics
Provincial weekly (instead of the current monthly) data releases will resume on September 26, yay!
As of 5 September, the BC CDC situation report says that in the week ending on 31 August there were: +462 reported cases, +118 hospital admissions, +18 ICU admissions, and +15 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.
In the week ending 24 August, they report that there were +457 reported cases, +125 hospital admissions, +16 ICU admissions, and +25 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.
In the week ending 17 August, they report that there were +398 reported cases, +133 hospital admissions, +17 ICU admissions, and +20 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.
In the week ending 10 August, they report that there were +365 reported cases, +144 hospital admissions, +16 ICU admissions, and +24 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.
*All-cause deaths in people who had a positive COVID-19 test in the prior 30 days, that is.
There were 214 people in hospital and and 12 in critical care with COVID-19 on 5 September, versus 175 in hospital and 17 in critical care on 1 August.
Charts
From the BC CDC Situation Report:
Wastewater
From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet:
