COVID-19 Diary – Day 423

Weekly New Infections Charts

Every Monday we take a look at our week-to-week totals and chart how BC’s fight against COVID-19 is progressing. Because of the reporting schedule used in BC, we use 7-day totals running from Tuesday to Monday. The above chart shows each week of the pandemic as a unique bar.

For the fourth week in a row our new case number 7-day totals have dropped. Last week we saw roughly 960 fewer new cases reported compared to the previous week. Our 7-day totals are now lower than they were at the peak of our second wave, which still not great overall, but an important milestone to reach nonetheless.

To better understand how the provincial numbers break down, we also look at the individual health authority regions.

A great deal of attention has been paid to the Fraser Health region in the last several weeks, and while new cases have been dropping, they have not been dropping as quickly as in other health regions. This week, however, that appears to be changing finally! New cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region have also continued to drop substantially.

All 3 of the above health regions are continuing to see significant drops in their new case numbers. Both Northern and Vancouver Island Health regions are nearly back to their pre-second wave numbers, which is incredible to see!

There are currently 6,140 known active cases of COVID-19 in BC. This number represents a decrease of almost 1200 active cases from this time last week. This is yet another substantial decline in active cases! As you can see from the above graph the numbers are dropping almost as quickly as they rose up a few months ago!

Week-to-Week Growth Rate

This graph tracks the growth rate between 7-day totals and is a good indicator of the overall momentum of new case numbers.

In the last 7 days BC has seen another decrease in our new case growth rate! Our province saw a new case growth rate of -17.81%! Not only is this the 4th week of sustained negative growth of new cases, but it’s also one of the lowest growth rates we’ve seen during the pandemic. This is incredibly encouraging to see, and shows we can absolutely get our numbers back down, even when fighting against the much more virulent variants of concern.

Hospitalizations & Deaths

Currently, there are 415 people in BC hospitalized with COVID-19, and 150 of those are confined to the ICU. This is a steep decline from previous weeks, and is another sign that our efforts are making a big difference in protecting people’s health and lives.

In the last 7 days, another 29 people in BC have died from COVID-19. The numbers have been sitting in the 16-30 range for a few months now, and this week’s numbers are no exception. Deaths always lag behind hospitalizations, so while this isn’t entirely unexpected, it is still terrible and painful to see week after week. Hopefully soon we will see this number drop to substantially. Even 1 death is too many.

As always, our hearts go out to everyone who has lost someone during this pandemic.

Vaccination Roll-Out

Since the beginning of our vaccination program on December 15th, there have been a combined 2,159,103 COVID-19 vaccinations in our province, with 106,058 of these being a person’s second dose. It’s very hard to tell on the graph currently, but second doses have begun to pick up again too! In the last 7 days, we averaged about 2,050 second doses a day.

As of today, 2,053,045 individuals have received at least 1 dose of vaccine, representing about 47.7% of BC’s adult population (and 39.9% of the total population of BC, including those under 18). This means roughly 6.2% of the eligible population of BC received their first shot in the last 7 days.

The above chart shows the average number of vaccinations for each 7-day period since the beginning of the vaccination program. As you can see in the last 7 days the daily average number of vaccinations has hit a new record for BC, at 40,253!

This month BC has already received 410,550 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (combined), and is scheduled to receive another 966,150 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines by the end of the month.

We are still on course for every 18+ person in BC to receive at least one dose of vaccine by July 1st. In fact, based on the numbers above, we will probably hit this goal before June 15th, depending on how many adult accept the vaccine.

Vaccination Roll-out Update

All people 18 and over are now able to register to be vaccinated. If you haven’t done this yet, please do as soon as possible! Details on when 12-17 year olds may be able to also register are said to be in the works, and should be made public soon.

There is still no new news on when the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may become available for us in BC (or anywhere in Canada). However, if a determination on it is not made in the next 4-5 weeks or so, it may no longer matter.

If you are looking for a way to promote vaccination, you may be interested in being part of the Canadian vaccination campaign: This is Our Shot. Information can be found here.

That’s all for now, stay safe everyone!