We've received new data on hospitalizations in B.C. from the week of March 21-March 27.
There were 198 new hospitalizations, and 16% of them were in people under 40.
That's the same rate as the entire pandemic.
During that week, an additional 40 people were put in critical care.
Just 1 of them was somebody under the age of 40.
This is the week right before Horgan said we were seeing a surge in cases in young people.
To be fair to anecdotes from doctors, numbers could have significantly changed in the last 10 days.
Or they could have changed by a little bit, but we're all humans and change is relative, so it could have seemed like a lot.
Or the BCCDC's numbers are wrong.
But here we are.
One thing in today's BCCDC situation report that *is* very concerning is the sharp rise in the positivity rate in people 5-20.
Went from around 6% to 11% in the 5-9 bracket, 11% to 19% in the 10-14 bracket, and 10% to 14% in the 15-19 age bracket from one week to the next.
Anyhow, I hate to sound like a broken record, but I will keep tracking the data to see if the framework of how the pandemic impacts different age groups changes.
I'll let you know when/if there's data to support that.
Cases are rising and people should respond accordingly.
If you want to take the government's argument that young people are driving this surge in a different way, one piece of data is in the case count by ages, adjusted for population.
The spike is sharper for 20-40, but the percentage change is very similar.
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Let's do a thread, with a couple of new charts, looking at where B.C. is at in the pandemic, and what we can say is very concerning, decently concerning, and not too concerning.
one might wonder who this will help at this point, but i follow the advice of the teens
What's very concerning?
Overall transmission.
It continues to go up, and the rolling average/active case trendline is not slowing down one bit right now.
Until it does, there's lots of worry of this getting out of control, in a way B.C. has avoided to this point.
Here are the daily numbers from B.C. to Quebec today, adjusted if they all had B.C.'s population:
997 new cases of #COVID19 announced in B.C. today — but for the first time in three weeks, the rolling average has gone down.
However, active cases still up, people in critical care at a record 105, and two new deaths.
Today's chart.
After a slow long weekend, B.C. is back to its previous pace on vaccinations, with 34,040 done yesterday, as we reach the 20% mark of eligible people getting at least one shot.
The daily number can go up by a little bit with current supply, but not by too much.
The numbers today are somewhat encouraging, within the the context of the last three weeks of #OperationDontBlowThis
But a rise in hospitalizations is inevitable for a bit because of the lag from cases.
The Canucks are a good example on how an intense focus on variants instead of the broader picture of a virus that has killed millions of people can make things more confusing for the general public
A group of 20 incredibly fit young people were quickly infected by a virus that has put them out of commission, in a province where transmission is quickly on the rise!
That's a straightforward story that's easy to understand and communicate to the public.
But a lot of that got obscured, partly because the Canucks weren't particularly transparent (leading to anecdotal and sometimes clashing reports by journalists), and partly because of the intense interest right now in some quarters to talk about the P1 variant.
This was a question from @CBCtanya that the two of us put together, we told the government we would be asking about it, and it is disappointing for Dr. Henry to say things in response that are not true.
we got through the last week without any official in british columbia saying "the easter bunny's travel is essential and they have been vaccinated" and let's get our wins where we can right now
honestly feel bad for people who are incredibly angry, can't handle reporters having personalities, and have missed my reporting for months and months
Lot of valid frustration out there, 14 months of COVID fatigue makes everyone on edge, third wave full of new questions, journalists can be a proxy for anger towards politicians.
We all need to find healthy ways to get through the next couple months.