Dr. Bonnie Henry says this breathing disease season has been “very uncommon.”
This year’s respirational virus season continues to put pressure on B.C.’s medical system, but the occurrence of illnesses across the province has begun to decay from the highs seen through December.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix held a press conference Friday, giving an update on the current situation in B.C. with regards to COVID-19, flu, RSV and other breathing illnesses.
While viruses like virus naturally peak around this time of year, Henry said this respiratory illness season has been “very uncommon,” with a high number of virus cases in specific showing up in November and December.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in the province has continued “comparatively stable” over the past three months. While the area no longer has exact testing data for COVID-19, Dix said about 1,000 people in hospitals and other health-care settings last to get PCR tests every day.
While this data won’t capture the total number of cases in the community, combined with other data bases like wastewater surveillance facts, Henry said they’ve been capable to keep an eye on trends in rising or decreasing cases.
“Our facts indicate, from these many different sources, that virus in all age groups has gradually declined from the peak, where we saw about 28 percent test positivity in late November, down to about 5 % now,” Henry said.
“This has been a very uncommon year so it is very imperative to know that we can’t necessarily compare this year to previous virus seasons prior to the pandemic.”
She points to the lack of immunity numerous people, mostly children, have for virus and other breathing viruses, after some years of pandemic restrictions.
“There are numerous associates of broods who were never bare to influenza because of all the limits we had in place, particularly the restrictions on travel globally,” she said. “There are people whose immune systems haven’t industrialized that protection that they required.”
Henry noted there have not been any further kid deaths due to influenza in recent weeks, beyond the six catastrophic deaths that happened in November and early December.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 rose a little bit through December, but that number has been declining in recent weeks.
Henry also spoke about the latest COVID-19 Omicron variant, XBB.1.5. B.C.’s surveillance data shows about five to six per cent of new COVID-19 cases are this new subvariant. While this new subvariant appears to be mainly transmissible, she said there is no indication at this time that it’s been causing any more severe illness, and she says the newest bivalent vaccine appears to be active against it.
“The defenses we’ve built through vaccination — combinations of vaccine immunity and infection-induced immunity — means we have strong defences as a community across this province,” she said. “We are no longer in a place where we required to take extraordinary measures … COVID is not causing any more severe infection than other breathing infections.”
Dix said as of the end of the day Thursday, 10,116 people are hospitalized in B.C., which is 110 per cent of base beds or 87 percent of base beds plus surge ability beds. But nearby, hospitals remain stretched.
“There’s a decline of about 100 [hospitalizations] from where we were last week, but it’s still vividly high,” Dix said.
“We still have hospitals in B.C., particularly in Kelowna, Kamloops, Richmond and in other regions like Burnaby, that are above base and surge bed capacity, and our teams are doing an excellent job managing that situation … it’s an historically high number.”
