Hundreds of B.C. residents in hospital with COVID

Even though the numbers are very slowly declining, there are still hundreds of people in B.C. hospitals suffering from COVID, some to the point where they need intensive care. A Ministry of Health news release issued today, Feb. 18, shows 733 people in hospital, down from 744 yesterday....

Hundreds of B.C. residents in hospital with COVID

Even though the numbers are very slowly declining, there are still hundreds of people in B.C. hospitals suffering from COVID, some to the point where they need intensive care.

A Ministry of Health news release issued today, Feb. 18, shows 733 people in hospital, down from 744 yesterday. There are 113 in intensive care, down from 120 yesterday.

About half the of people in hospital with a COVID diagnosis were not in 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.

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There were 692 new cases reported in the past 24 hours including 217 in the Interior Health region, 157 in Fraser Health, 75 in Vancouver Coastal, 105 on Vancouver Island and 138 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.

There were five more deaths, but none in Interior Health, bringing the pandemic total to 2,786.

The vaccination rate for people over the age of 12 crept up slightly to 93.2% with at least one dose as did the 90.6% with at least two doses and 53.9% have three doses.


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