The number of people with COVID-19 in Vancouver Island hospitals has nearly doubled in the past month.
The number of people with COVID-19 in Vancouver Island hospitals has nearly doubled in the past month.
Seventy-six people are currently in island hospitals with COVID-19, up from 41 patients on March 28, according to data released Thursday by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
It's a trend reflected across the province, where hospitalizations hit 570 on Thursday compared to 288 on March 28.
Seven people are in critical care with the disease on Vancouver Island, up from two patients on March 28.
The BCCDC says there have been 279 COVID-19-related deaths in the Island Health region to date, up from 238 deaths on March 28.
However, when the province switched from providing daily COVID-19 reports to weekly reports, it also changed its reporting on COVID-19 deaths to reporting "all-cause mortality," which includes anyone who dies within 30 days of testing positive for the disease.
The BCCDC says “all-cause mortality is being used because cause of death takes approximately eight weeks to be recorded. Retrospective evaluations of underlying cause of death will be done by the BCCDC, in addition to the data provided in this report, to better understand true COVID-19 mortality.