Eight deaths most significant change in B.C.’s daily COVID picture

There has been very little change in the seriousness of COVID cases in B.C. in the last 24 hours.

But, after one day with no reported deaths and most of a week with very few daily deaths, there were eight recorded in the last 24 hours, although none were in the Interior Health region.

That brings the pandemic death toll to 2,953. That number does not always coincide with the number of deaths listed each day since data corrections are often made, according to a Ministry of Health news release issued today, March 16.

There are 329 people in B.C. hospitals with COVID, down only slightly from 345 yesterday. Of those, 51 are in intensive care units, up one from yesterday.

About half the of people in hospital with a COVID diagnosis were not there because of COVID but were tested after going to hospital for things like surgery, delivering a baby or being admitted to a mental health unit.

READ MORE: British Columbians more satisfied with end of COVID restriction than most Canadians: poll

Data adjustments have confused the picture of how many new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. The news release says there were 235 but the total number for the province only went up by 174.

“This has resulted in no new cases reported in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health and a decrease in the overall total number of cases in these health authorities compared to yesterday,” the news release says. “This is due to data reconciliation from the preliminary numbers reported yesterday.”

There were 182 new cases listed in the Interior Health region which is the highest single-day number in the region since March 1. There were 30 cases reported on Vancouver Island and 23 in the Northern Health region.

The real number of cases is estimated to be three to four times higher because many people infected with COVID are not getting tested or take rapid tests that are not recorded in these figures.

The vaccination rate for people over the age of 12 with at least one dose was unchanged at 93.4%, as was the 90.9% who have at least two doses while the 56.7% who have three doses is up slightly.

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