A day after Ontario announced its third wave, Adrian Dix said cases in British Columbia are also trending up, though not as significantly as hospitalizations. “We don’t see a significant increase in intensive care in more serious outcomes for people who are hospitalized and test positive for COVID-19,” Dix told Early Edition host Stephen Quinn. As of Thursday, 369 people are in hospital with the novel coronavirus, including 36 in intensive care, according to the BC COVID-19 dashboard. That’s a 35 percent increase in total hospital admissions since last Thursday, when the province reported 273 people in hospital. The number of patients in ICUs is up 12.5% from 32 a week ago. The government says its weekly figures are preliminary. It adjusts them retrospectively because of delays in counting and the new way it counts weekly cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Health Minister Adrian Dix attends a COVID-19 briefing in Vancouver on Monday. (Ben Nelms/CBC) The numbers released Thursday are part of an approach by BC health officials that began earlier this year, both in moving to weekly reporting and in how certain metrics are calculated. Another 24 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in the province from June 26 to July 2, which includes all those who died within 30 days of testing positive for COVID-19, whether or not the virus has been confirmed as an underlying cause. cause of death. Test positivity rates are up slightly, reaching an average of 9.1 percent across the province on Saturday, compared to 7.5 percent the previous week.
New details coming Friday on BC’s vaccination plan
Dix did not hint that new public health measures will be implemented to stem the new wave of Omicron driven by the BA.5 subvariant and said British Columbia continues to focus on vaccination as its best defense against COVID-19, reiterating that vaccines continue to provide strong protection by making hospitalization five times less likely and death seven times less likely. “Everyone else who has been invited has been invited to take your fourth dose. Take your fourth dose,” Dix said. A COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Vancouver Convention Center in Vancouver in January 2022. Health Minister Adrian Dix is recommending that people who have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine receive their booster dose or the third dose. (Ben Nelms/CBC) According to the minister, half of those entitled to the fourth installment have already received it. However, he said, a significant category of people who received two doses but have not yet received a booster should now get their booster. The National Immunization Advisory Committee has warned that the respiratory disease season will be challenging this fall. “That’s where we expect to be dealing with COVID-19 again and the need for people to get an extra dose in the fall, regardless of how many doses they’ve gotten so far,” Dix said. Health authorities also announced a press conference Friday at 1 p.m. to provide an update on BC’s immunization plan. Health Minister Adrian Dix will be in attendance, as well as Dr. Martin Lavoie, Acting Provincial Health Officer of BC and Dr. Penny Ballem, executive head of BC’s COVID-19 vaccination plan. LISTEN | Health Minister Adrian Dix on the province’s response to a third wave of Omicron The Early Edition14:24Minister Adrian Dix — third wave of new Omicron variant infections in BC. The provincial government may make fourth doses of Covid-19 vaccines widely available in the Fall. This, as we hear more of a third Omicron wave. We hear from Health Minister Adrian Dix about this.
