While COVID-19 remains a serious illness that continues to kill British Columbians all too frequently, the reality is that the lion's share of the 207,120 people known to have been infected with the disease in the province have recovered.
B.C., in the past 24 hours, passed the threshold of 200,000 recoveries, as the province now deems that 200,220 people who were infected are no longer infectious. That is a 96.7% recovery rate.
An unknown number of people deemed recovered by the province continue to have health problems. Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said last week that the number of those people is in the hundreds.
With six new deaths discovered in the past 24 hours, there have now been 2,192 people known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 in B.C.
The six new deaths included:
• four in Fraser Health;
• one in Interior Health; and
• one in Island Health.
Another 4,373 people are actively battling infections. That leaves 335 people who were once infected in B.C. unaccounted for, and provincial officials through the pandemic have told BIV that some people left the province without providing officials with any health updates.
Serious infections remain high, although, because of data errors, the province did not have an update on how many people are battling COVID-19 in B.C. hospitals. Yesterday, the total was 445 – the highest number in nearly six months.
The province did report that there are 137 people in intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals, which is the same number as yesterday.
Unvaccinated people continue to fuel the pandemic.
Health Minister Adrian Dix tweeted that 116 of the 137 people now in ICUs are unvaccinated, four are partially vaccinated, and the remaining 17 are fully vaccinated. Only two of the 65 people in B.C. hospital ICU wards who are aged younger than 60 years are fully vaccinated, whereas 62 are unvaccinated and one is partially vaccinated.
Glacier Media broke down the 430 infections detected in the past day by health region, for each 10,000 residents (with total new cases in brackets).
• 1.1 in Fraser Health (202);
• 0.4 in Vancouver Coastal Health (56);
• 1.2 in Interior Health (88);
• 1.2 in Northern Health (37); and
• 0.6 in Island Health (47).
There were no new infections among people who normally do not reside in Canada.
The result by health region, for the 4,373 people fighting active infections, for each 10,000 residents (with total new cases in brackets) is:
• 10.5 in Fraser Health (1,891);
• 4.8 in Vancouver Coastal Health (603);
• 8.6 in Interior Health (638);
• 18.3 in Northern Health (550); and
• 7.4 in Island Health (632).
There are 59 active infections among people who normally do not reside in Canada.
Another 2,195 B.C. residents received initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the past day, while 4,640 British Columbians received second doses.
Across B.C., 90.1% of eligible people older than 12 have had at least one dose of vaccine, with 85.5% of eligible people having had two doses, according to the B.C. government.
Of the 4,174,139 B.C. residents who have received one dose of vaccine since mid-December, 2020, 94.9%, or 3,963,038, are considered fully vaccinated, with two doses. Last week, the government said 90,425 British Columbians had received third doses of vaccine. No update to that number was provided today.
The B.C. government estimated in July that the province's total population is 5,147,712, so Glacier Media's calculation is that 81.1% of B.C.'s total population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and 77% of the province's total population has had two doses.
One new outbreak at a health-care facility is at Hallmark on the Park in Abbotsford. Outbreaks at Heritage Village in Chilliwack, and Magnolia Gardens in Langley have been declared over.
B.C. continues to have 40 active outbreaks at health-care facilities and seniors' residences. Henry earlier this week said most of the outbreaks are small, compared with earlier in the pandemic. •
