B.C. health officials release their weekly update on the latest hospitalizations, deaths and new cases.
On Thursday, 406 people were in hospital with the virus, a slight drop from 426 last Thursday. Out of these, 30 were in critical care., released Thursday, there were 1,044 new cases recorded across the province from July 10 to 16, up from 973 the previous week. This figure has been on an upwards swing since mid-June when new cases were in the mid-600s.
This number also does not reflect the true number of COVID-19 cases in the B.C. due to limited PCR testing availability and because results of at-home rapid test kits are not included in the official count. The third Omicron wave, which is also hitting other provinces and countries hard, is largely driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. An independent modelling group has predicted this wave will peak in B.C. in August.Article contentThere were 246 people admitted to a B.C. hospital with COVID-19 from July 10 to 16, down from 262 the previous week.
During the same week, 21 people died within 30 days of a positive COVID-19 test, down from 29, bringing B.C.’s death toll from the virus to 3,855.et the latest COVID-19 news delivered to your inbox weeknights at 7 p.m. by subscribing to our newsletterGet unlimited, ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites for just $14/month or $140/year.