Hospitalizations creep up as B.C. reports 5 more in acute care with COVID-19 and 2 more deaths

B.C. health officials reported 260 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Friday, including 50 in intensive care, as the province recorded two more deaths from the disease and 218 new cases.

The new numbers represent an increase of five COVID-19 patients hospitalized within the last 24 hours, including two fewer patients in the ICU.

It's the second time this week that hospitalizations have risen after falling steadily since Feb. 7.

Overall hospitalizations, which typically lag behind spikes and dips in new cases, are down by 10.3 per cent from last Friday, when 290 people were in hospital with the disease and down 56.6 per cent from a month ago when 599 people were in hospital. 

The number of patients in intensive care is up by 8.7 per cent from 46 a week ago and down nearly 48 per cent from a month ago when 96 people were in the ICU.

The provincial death toll from COVID-19 is now 2,983 lives lost out of 355,092 confirmed cases to date.

There are three new outbreaks in assisted living, long-term, and acute care facilities, bringing the total to seven, including an acute care outbreak at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

As of Friday, 90.8 per cent of those five and older in B.C. had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.2 per cent a second dose.

From March 17 to 23, people who were not fully vaccinated accounted for 15.8 per cent of cases and from March 10 to 23, they accounted for 26.2 per cent of hospitalizations, according to the province.

A total of 2,553,879 million people have received a booster shot to date.

Feds provide additional $2B to clear surgical backlogs

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced Friday that the federal government will send another $2 billion to provinces and territories to help clear the health-care backlog created by the years-long pandemic crisis.

Over the last two years, provinces and territories have cancelled hundreds of thousands of "elective" surgeries — leaving many Canadians waiting for hip replacements, cataract surgery or cancer treatments, among dozens of other procedures.

The surgeries were cancelled as hospitals scrambled to shift resources to deal with the crushing COVID caseload.