The week after we heard several anecdotal stories about #COVID19 hospitalizations suddenly much more concentrated in young people, it was pretty much the exact same proportion of the entire pandemic
I went through the reasons for this last week, but it bears repeating: our eyes can play tricks on us, and faster data from the government would help a lot in our understanding of this pandemic
And of course, hospitalizations are up, new weekly patients are now at much higher levels than the 2nd wave, and it's not like hospitals have a lot of excess space at the best of times
One interesting note in the past week — the % of people from 30-50 who required hospitalization after testing positive didn't change.
But there was a higher rate of people requiring critical care if they were hospitalized.
Small sample size, but something I'll keep an eye on.
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In March, the B.C. city of 12,000 had the highest #COVID19 transmission rate in the province.
Every adult was offered the chance to be vaccinated.
At the peak, there were more than 100 weekly cases.
Last week, there were 3.
For those outside B.C., there isn't a city with more than 15,000 people within 500 km of Prince Rupert, and it's effectively surrounded by water on three sides.
It's an ideal place to measure mass vaccinations in an urban setting.
And the evidence is wonderful.
this is now my new favourite fact about prince rupert, eclipsing this very real gift
849 cases of #COVID19 announced in B.C. today, as the province's 3rd wave keeps showing signs of a plateau, though less in the way of a real fall.
Hospitalizations continue to rise — now at a record 456, with a record 148 in critical care.
One death.
Today's chart.
An additional 34,484 people were vaccinated in B.C. yesterday, which is actually less than the previous Monday (supply of Pfizer/Moderna a little low right now).
Will be interesting to see if there's an AZ surge in the coming days given the wider availability.
Active cases: down 9%
People under active monitoring: down 16%
We've got some good signs, and the time until enough people are vaccinated to have a significant impact on transmission can now be measured in weeks rather than months.
B.C.'s $69 billion budget includes a projected deficit of $9.7 billion this year, as the province plans for large contingency funds to help groups both during the pandemic and in the recovery afterwards.
A few highlights in the thread to come!
Deficits are projected indefinitely: $9.7 billion this year, $5.5 billion next, $4.3 billion in 2023/2024.
But the province promises that in the next year B.C. would provide a detailed timeline and approach “to a return to fiscal balance.”
Most of the big had been previously announced in the election or the last couple months, including free transit for children under the age of 12, and a permanent $175/month increase to income and disability assistance (though down from $300/month during the pandemic)
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: