B.C. records 758 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 more deaths
There are 434 people in hospital with the disease, 155 of whom are in intensive care
B.C. health officials announced 758 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 more deaths on Thursday.
In a written statement, the provincial government said there are currently 4,961 active cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus in B.C.
A total of 434 people are in hospital, with 155 in intensive care.
The provincial death toll from COVID-19 is now 2,147 lives lost out of 204,330 confirmed cases to date.
There are a total of 27 active outbreaks in assisted living and long-term care.
There are also six active outbreaks in acute care facilities — at Mission Memorial Hospital, Chilliwack General Hospital, Queen's Park Care Centre in New Westminster, the University Hospital of Northern B.C., GR Baker Memorial Hospital in Quesnel, and Bulkley Valley District Hospital in the Northern Health region.
As of Thursday, 89.8 per cent of those 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.9 per cent a second dose.
From Oct. 20 to 26, people who were not fully vaccinated accounted for 64.7 per cent of cases and from Oct. 13, they accounted for 74 per cent of hospitalizations, according to the province.
So far, 8.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, including 3.9 million second doses.
New cases declining
An independent modelling group says it believes the pandemic is "largely stable" in B.C., with cases declining and expected to continue to do so in the coming weeks.
In a report published Wednesday, the B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Group said case rates are declining at a rate of about two per cent each day. It said the mask mandate and regional public health restrictions, like those introduced in northern parts of the province, helped stabilize cases.
The modelling group, which includes experts from UBC, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria, expects cases in the province to decline as the recently vaccinated build immunity over the next three weeks. The forecast includes the stricken Northern Health Authority region, which has seen its hospitals become overloaded in recent weeks.
Health minister Adrian Dix is urging caution as COVID-19 numbers stabilize, saying the northern region had a test positivity rate of 19 per cent on Wednesday compared with a rate of four to five per cent for the rest of the province.
Dix said the lowest test positivity rate of 2.5 per cent was in Vancouver Coastal.
He said the B.C. Vaccine Card has helped boost vaccination rates but 10.3 per cent of the population remains unvaccinated, so the province will continue pushing to get that number down as influenza season approaches and flu shots are offered.
The week-over-week hospitalization comparisons are temporarily suspended after the Northern Health Authority introduced a one-time, retroactive accounting change to its hospitalization numbers Tuesday. We will reintroduce them Wednesday, Nov. 3.