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COVID-19 outbreaks in B.C. healthcare facilities continue to rise.

B.C. healthcare outbreaks rise to 32

By Richmond Sentinel

Published 4:23 PDT, Wed October 27, 2021

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The number of B.C. healthcare facilities with active COVID-19 outbreaks has risen to 32 today.

Healthcare outbreaks were steadily low throughout July, but have remained above 15 since late August.

With five new outbreaks today, and one declared over, there are active outbreaks at 19 long-term care facilities, seven assisted or independent living facilities and six acute care facilities.

Of the active outbreaks, the vast majority are in the Fraser Health region—11 long-term care facilities, seven assisted or independent living facilities and three acute care facilities. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Coastal Health region has two long-term care facilities with active outbreaks, the Interior Health region has five long-term care facilities and the Northern Health region has one long-term care facility and three acute care facilities.

B.C. health authorities reported 609 new cases of COVID-19 today. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 203,582 cases.

Of the new cases, 79 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 257 in the Fraser Health region, 55 in the Island Health region, 92 in the Interior Health region, 126 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are 4,748 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 422 of those people are hospitalized, 157 of whom are in intensive care.

Health officials advised that the rise in hospitalizations can be partially attributed to a change in the data source in Interior Health.

“As of Oct. 26, Interior Health has changed the primary source of COVID-19 hospitalization surveillance data. This change in data source will lead to a one-time increase in the number of ever and currently reported COVID-19 hospitalizations. This change is retrospective to the beginning of the pandemic though primarily affects cases reported since August 2021,” said health officials in a release.

To date, 8,186,611 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 3,925,937 of those are second doses.

This means that 90.1 per cent of adults and 89.7 per cent of people aged 12 and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 85.3 per cent of adults and 84.7 per cent of those aged 12 and older have received two doses.

Sadly, there were six new virus-related deaths reported today, bringing that total to 2,137. Of those who died, five lived in the Fraser Health region and one in the Northern Health region.

From Oct. 19 to 25, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 64.1 per cent of cases, and from Oct. 12 to 25 they accounted for 74.9 per cent of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Oct. 19 to 25)—Total 4,153

• Not vaccinated: 2,377 (57.2 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 287 (6.9 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 1,489 (35.9 per cent)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Oct. 12 to 25)—Total 449

• Not vaccinated: 306 (68.2 per cent)

• Partially vaccinated: 30 (6.7 per cent)

• Fully vaccinated: 113 (25.2 per cent)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Oct. 19 to 25)

• Not vaccinated: 293.1

• Partially vaccinated: 92.3

• Fully vaccinated: 34.7

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Oct. 12 to 25)

• Not vaccinated: 55.8

• Partially vaccinated: 13.2

• Fully vaccinated: 2.5

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and to find a testing centre near you: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.