BC had 44 deaths from COVID-19 in the week ending Oct. 22, the highest weekly death toll reported since mid-June, it announced Thursday (Oct. 27). The death toll has risen by 12 since the week ended Oct. 15 and is the highest number reported since June 16, when the province reported 50 deaths from COVID-19. The province’s data is widely regarded as imprecise, but provides some insight into trends. The province’s methodology for calculating deaths from COVID-19 is to include everyone who has died after officially testing positive for COVID-19 in the past month — a process that could include people who die in traffic accidents. It also starts the countdown for that 30-day window when a person first tests positive for COVID-19 and does not reset the clock for subsequent detected infections. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said in April, when she introduced this new counting methodology, that the province’s Vital Statistics Agency would later determine that some deaths were not due to COVID-19 and would subtract those deaths from the total death toll. of the province. This process would mean that the death toll would increase on a weekly basis by less than the number of new weekly deaths – the opposite of what is happening. Although BC recorded 44 new deaths in the week to Oct. 22, it increased the total number of deaths from COVID-19 by 59, to 4,485. This data discrepancy follows a similar trend since last week’s update, when 44 cases were reported but the number of deaths increased by 53. BC Health could not explain why this continues to happen and told Glacier Media that the data “may be incomplete.” Other new data reported that there are 292 people with COVID-19 in K.V.E. hospitals. in the week ending October 27, including 20 in intensive care units (ICUs). This is down from 389 people with COVID-19 in KBE hospitals, including 21 in ICUs, a week ago. However, total hospital admissions rose from 29,206 to 29,475 each week, an increase of 269. BC’s number for hospitalized COVID-19 patients includes those hospitalized for different reasons who just happened to test positive for COVID-19. Henry said about half of the hospital patients estimated to have COVID-19 are these “accidental” cases. BC’s official number of new COVID-19 cases identified in the week to October 22nd is 534 – down 94 from the 628 infections identified in the week to October 15th. Despite this, the government’s total number of cases during the pandemic rose by 531 to 387,451. Data on new infections has long been widely dismissed. Even Henry, earlier this year, called the data on new cases “inaccurate.” That’s because in December it began telling people who had been vaccinated and had mild symptoms not to get tested and to simply self-isolate. He said at the time that this was to increase testing capacity for those with more severe symptoms and those who are most vulnerable. The detected cases came from just 6,517 official tests in the week ending Oct. 22, up 64 tests from the last reporting period. This week 12.06 percent of tests came back positive. Testing was much more widespread in September, with weekly tests exceeding 15,000 at times. The province no longer reports how many nursing homes have active cases. With files from Glen Korstrom
