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Since Jan. 1, there have been 174 COVID-related deaths in B.C., about 40 per cent of which were related to long-term care outbreaks.

Forty per cent of January COVID-19 deaths connected to long-term care

By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Published 5:08 PST, Fri January 28, 2022

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Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said about 40 per cent of COVID-related deaths this month were tied to long-term care outbreaks. Since Jan. 1, B.C. has reported 174 virus-related deaths.

“We count everybody who has a positive COVID test and dies within 30 days of that test. We’ve always recognized that COVID could play a role in those people’s deaths,” she said.

Apart from these outbreaks, most people dying tend to be older, with underlying illnesses, and often unvaccinated. Additionally, COVID deaths include younger people infected with the Delta variant who have been in hospital for some time.

“This virus, even in its form that it is now, the Omicron strain, does cause severe illness in some people,” said Henry.

She said that two people in their 40s died of COVID this week. Younger people dying tend to be unvaccinated and many have other underlying causes.

B.C. reported nine additional COVID-related deaths today, bringing that total to 2,597. Of those who died, three lived in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), five in the Fraser Health region and one in the Northern Health region.

B.C. health officials reported 2,137 new cases of COVID-19 today. Since the pandemic began, B.C. has recorded 321,043 cases.

Of the new cases, 394 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 740 in the Fraser Health region, 264 in the Island Health region, 569 in the Interior Health region, 170 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

The numbers of total and new cases are provisional due to a delayed data refresh and will be verified once confirmed, according to a B.C. government news release. The release also said that the update on cases and hospitalizations by vaccination status is unavailable today.

There are 30,515 active cases of COVID in B.C. and 990 COVID-positive individuals are in hospital, 141 of whom are in intensive care.

To date, 10,640,763 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Pediatric COVID vaccines have been administered in B.C.; 4,174,992 of those are second doses and 2,033,321 are third doses.

This means that 93.0 per cent of adults, 92.7 per cent of people aged 12 and older and 89.8 per cent of people aged five and older have received their first dose of a vaccine. In addition, 90.5 per cent of adults, 90.0 per cent of those aged 12 and older and 83.8 per cent of those aged five and older have received two doses; 47.0 per cent of adults and 43.9 per cent of those aged 12-plus have received three doses.

Henry said 51 per cent of eligible kids aged five to 11 have received their first dose.

Health authorities reported seven new health-care facility outbreaks and declared 10 over. Active outbreaks continue at 46 long-term care facilities, two assisted or independent living facilities and 10 acute care facilities.

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.