I m monitoring for a number of things: fewer cases in our community, fewer outbreaks, or unchecked transmission in places around the province – these are important signs that we are ready [to loosen health restrictions]. Also having a better understanding of where the variants of concern are, and how they re getting into our community. B.C. now has 241 people with infections serious enough to be in hospital. That is up by seven from yesterday, and it includes 68 people whose ailments are serious enough to be in intensive care units. The province has a total of 4,393 people actively battling infections – up 417 overnight.
by Craig Takeuchi on February 8th, 2021 at 5:30 PM 1 of 3 2 of 3
At today’s B.C. COVID-19 briefing, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said she’s been talking with her colleagues a lot about the variant, as they have been watching what has been happening in other countries.
She said, much to their dismay, the variant “does change the game in some ways” if it does take off and becomes dominant.
“All of us have dreaded that,” she said, as she said it can take us back to how we were operating at the beginning of the pandemic with case management, contact tracing, and controlling every single case.
Health Minister Adrian Dix told media that when new hospital beds that the province has added during the pandemic are taken into consideration, B.C. s hospital occupancy rate is 70.4%. When new ICU beds are taken into consideration, the province s ICUs are at 52% occupancy. The number of people known to be carrying the virus in B.C. has also been on the decline. There are now 3,976 people who have been infected and have not yet tested negative multiple times, which is the process for considering people as having recovered. That is the lowest total since November 6, when there were 3,741 people with active infections. Given that B.C. had a record 10,039 people with active infections on December 14, that metric has fallen considerably.
The recent trend of fewer people in B.C. being hospitalized with COVID-19 complications continued on February 5, with the province now having 253 individuals in those institutions – four . . .
Another six British Columbians have died overnight from complications related to the COVID-19 virus, bringing the province s death toll from the pandemic to 1,240, according to Ministry of Health . . .