Number of people in B.C. hospitals with COVID-19 down almost 10 per cent

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 declined for the third consecutive week while the number of patients in critical care has risen since the province last released COVID-19 data last week.

Data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control shows 331 people in hospital with COVID-19 as of Thursday, a decline of about 10 per cent from the week before and down about 19 per cent from the total of 410 reported on Aug. 4.

Twenty-ninepatients are in critical care, up seven from last Thursday.

The provincealso reported33 more deaths between Aug. 14 and20,bringing the total to 4,097.

The government's weekly numbers, which it says are preliminary, are often changed retroactively due to delays in the count and the new way the province measures weekly cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Deaths are now calculated based on whether they occurred within 30 days of a positive COVID-19 test, whether or not the coronavirus has been confirmed as an underlying cause of death.

Last week, the province reported 24 deaths between Aug. 7 and13. That number has been revised upwardto43.

The numbers released Thursday are part of an approach from B.C. health officials that began in April, in which they moved to weekly reporting of COVID-19 numbers and changed how certain metrics are calculated.

There were 737new cases reported from Aug. 13 to20, a decrease of nearly 16 per cent from the previous reporting period, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in B.C. to date to 381,788.

The province says it likely underestimates actual case numbers as most people are testing themselves, and there are fewer lab-reported tests.

The seven-day moving average for test positivity is 8.5 per cent as of Aug. 20, according to the B.C. CDC Dashboard, down from a high of over 10 per cent earlier this month.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said anything above a five per cent test-positivity rate is a general indicator of ongoing community transmission.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control says while there continues to be week-to-week variability, SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in Metro Vancouver wastewater generally continue to decrease from recent peaks at the end of June and early July with an increase of viral loads detected at the Annacis Island treatment plant.