Data from the BC Center for Disease Control shows 398 people in hospital with COVID-19, down about 3% from the previous week. Twenty-two patients are in intensive care, the lowest number since mid-June and a drop of more than 40 percent since last week, when there were 38 people in ICU.
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A total of 28 people died within a month of testing positive for COVID-19 between July 31 and August 6, according to the province, bringing the number of lives lost to 3,995. The death toll between July 24 and July 30 has been revised upwards to 54, almost double the number reported last week. The government’s weekly numbers, which it says are preliminary, often change retrospectively because of delays in counting and the new way the province says it counts weekly cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The numbers released Thursday are part of an approach by BC health officials that began in April, both in moving to weekly reporting and in how certain metrics are calculated. Deaths are now counted based on whether they occurred within 30 days of a positive COVID-19 test, whether or not the virus is confirmed as the underlying cause of death. A total of 900 new cases were reported as of Aug. 6, for a total of 380,174 cases to date, a number the province acknowledges is low because most people are getting tested and there are fewer lab tests.
Test positivity rates drop slightly
Test positivity rates fell slightly to 10.1 percent for the week ended Aug. 6, according to provincial numbers, down one percent from the previous week. The District Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said anything above a five percent test positive rate is an indicator of a more alarming level of transmission in the community. A total of 173 people were admitted to hospital with the disease between July 31 and August 6, according to the BC Center for Disease Control, a 28.5 per cent decrease from the previous week. According to the BCCDC, monitoring shows a drop in viral loads in Metro Vancouver’s wastewater, compared to the recent peak in late June and early July.
