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British Columbia could see pandemic measures begin to loosen in the coming weeks although record hospitalizations have strained the health-care system.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said today the hospitalizations have begun to level off, making her hopeful she can begin relaxing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 by Family Day on Feb. 21.
“While it is under severe strain… our hospitals are coping even though we’re stretched,” she said. "We are looking forward to when we can lift those measures."
As of Monday there were 1,048 people in hospital with COVID-19. In April, the previous peak before the Omicron surge, there were 515 people in hospital.
Hospitalizations appear to have plateaued in all age groups, according to data Henry presented today, and show early signs of decline.
The province reported 4,075 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend. But severely limited testing criteria mean the true daily total is estimated by some researchers to be up to eight times greater. In the last week, 63 people have died of COVID-19.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said today hospitals are pushed above their base capacity. There are 9,229 acute care base beds in B.C. but 9,358 people in hospital, and 582 of 2,353 surge beds are full.
In the last week, 870 scheduled surgeries were postponed and 17,756 of the province’s nearly 190,000 health-care workers called in sick for COVID-19 and non-pandemic reasons.
The Tyee previously reported the fifth Omicron wave was straining Vancouver hospitals, where contact tracing was breaking down and staff and bed shortages made it impossible to isolate COVID-19 patients properly.
On Monday, the Victoria Times Colonist reported a woman had been asked to come to a city hospital to feed her mother her three meals because there weren’t enough staff to do it.
“Everybody gets fed,” Dix said today. “This is not unusual… that visitors be asked to contribute to that.”
In late January B.C. began to track hospitalizations differently, providing separate numbers for those admitted due to COVID-19 and those who were admitted for unrelated reasons and later developed mild illness or tested positive while in hospital.
Data analyzed by the province indicates that about 44 per cent of the 1,048 patients currently in hospital with COVID-19 were not admitted because of the virus.
This proportion increases for people who are younger and have the full protection of vaccines, Henry said.
Someone who has at least one dose of vaccine is about half as likely to require hospital care for the Omicron variant compared to someone of their age who is not vaccinated.
The hospital report presented today suggested someone with the Omicron variant is about half as likely to be hospitalized as someone with the Delta variant, at about 1.3 per cent of cases.
“But 1.3 per cent risk of hospitalization is still very high when you have thousands of people a day who are being infected,” said Henry.
Age is still the biggest risk factor for severe illness and death, with those over 80 most likely to require hospital and critical care. Vaccination status also plays a critical role.
Henry said that she is cautiously optimistic B.C. could begin a “gradual turn of the dial” to loosen pandemic measures soon. “It won’t be a flick of the switch.”
But she said B.C. wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of Denmark or the United Kingdom, which are in the process of removing virtually all pandemic measures.
“We are progressing through this surge, which means we can start to look to gradually ease restrictions in the coming weeks,” Henry said. “We still have a ways to go on our journey.” ![[Tyee]](/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png){kind=small}
Read more: Coronavirus, BC Politics
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