The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has unmistakenly gone up since August, and there is a small but very real rise in the number of COVID-19 cases that they have seen. Positivity, however, hasn’t really moved all that much (and wastewater is hard to interpret), so I don’t know what to tell you about COVID-19.
I can tell you that influenza and RSV are still pretty much non-existent still. I don’t think you need to run out and get your flu shot just yet.
Charts
From the BC CDC Situation Report:
From the Viral Pathogen Characterization page:
Reminder: the graphs below don’t tell how many cases there were, but how many cases they found when testing. Almost nobody gets tested.
Testing
I am seeing reports from many provinces in Canada that free rapid antigen tests are no longer available. This article says that back in May, Health Canada said that the federal government was going to stop distributing free tests; apparently all of the tests in their inventory will expire in December 2024 and they won’t restock the supply.
HOWEVER, your dedicated correspondent did field research and confirmed ongoing availability in BC. In other words, I walked into a pharmacy today and walked out with a box of rapid tests dated 2026-09-06. I asked for another, and the pharmacist told me “one per person”; I tried to say that one box was for my spouse and they shunted me to a different till with a long line; I didn’t have the patience to wait in a second line.
Wastewater
From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet:
