🎉🎉🎉 This is really amazing. There are only about 40 people in hospital with COVID-19 right now. The count hasn’t been that low literally since Alpha hit! I suspect that partly this is from less testing, partly because of vaccines, partly because the treatments have gotten better, and partly because the number of cases really does seem to be low. (Wastewater is really low too.)
Whatever the reason is (well, as long as it’s not due to crappy data), I think this is something to celebrate!
Vaccines
🎉💉This press release (2025-03-28) says that COVID-19 vaccines will be available this spring, with notices starting to go out on 8 April. The recommendation is specifically for
- anybody over 65;
- indigenous people over 55;
- people who live in congregate housing (prisons, care homes, etc.);
- clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV 1 or CEV 2).
However, there’s also a quiet little sentence that says, “Anyone else who feels they would benefit from an additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccine can consult with their health-care provider, contact the call centre at 1 833 838-2323 to book an appointment or call a pharmacy for availability” which sounds to me like, “if you really want one you can get one, but you won’t be able to go through the online reservation system”. 💉🎉
(Editor’s note: if you are not in one of the high-risk groups, I suggest that it would be polite to wait for a month or so to let the high-risk groups go first.)
The press release didn’t say how long the vaccines would be available. This article (2025-03-25) says that New Brunswick will offer shots until 30 June; this article (2025-03-24) says that Nova Scotia will offer shots until 30 June, so it seems likely that they will be offered in BC until 30 June. (Something in the New Brunswick article makes me suspect that the doses will expire on 30 June.)
Mitigation Measures
🚫😷 This press release (2025-03-28) says that Dr. Henry has declared an end to respiratory illness season. As far as I can tell, the only thing that means that the masking requirement in health care settings has been dropped. 😢
It might mean that they are going to stop providing weekly 📈statistics, but I didn’t see anything specifically about that.
Healthcare
🎉 I missed it earlier, but this article (2025-03-11) says that BC is changing its licensing rules so that 🧑⚕️🇺🇸 US doctors can practice in BC immediately, with no extra licensing or training. They plan to do something similar but not quite as permissive for 🧑⚕️🇺🇸US nurses.
🎉 🎉 The article also says that BC has recruited 1001 new family doctors since they changed the payment model for family doctors in 2023. However, this article (2025-03-21) says that there are still 400,000 people without a family doctor.😢
🎉 This essay (2025-03-25) by a doctor who recently moved from the US to BC is quite favourable towards the BC system. The doc says that here, they are able to spend their time here exercising medical judgment, instead of worrying about billing, getting sued, or what-else-is-going-wrong-in-the-patient’s-life. “Canadian doctors care for their fellow citizens in a system designed — however imperfectly — for the public good. That idea still holds power”, the doc says.
Measles
This article (2025-03-28) reports that there have been five cases of measles in BC. Three recent cases in Fraser were from a group (maybe a family?) who got it abroad.
The article (and the 2025-03-28 Ministry of Health vaccine press release!) also reports that the province recommends that people born after 1969 get a 💉💉second shot of measles vax. (Editor’s note: This applies to people who lived and got vaccinated in Canada as children. People who lived and got vaccinated in the USA between 1963 and 1969 might have gotten a dud, so they definitely need at least one and maybe even two shots.)
Charts
From the BC CDC Situation Report:
Comparison vs. Other Influenza-Like-Illnesses, from the Viral Pathogen Characterization page:
In the most recent data (ending 22 March) as reported on 27 March 2025, among influenza-like illness (i.e upper respiratory diseases) cases the province has test data for:
- 60.15% were influenza A or B;
- 14.81% were RSV;
- 4.82% were COVID-19;
- 7.81% were entero/rhinoviruses;
- 5.16% were “common cold” coronaviruses;
- 4.40% were metapneumonia viruses;
- adenoviruses and parainfluenza were under 2%.
Wastewater
From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet:
