Shift to Weekly Data review for COVID moves BC into Surveillance Mode for pandemic

The BC CDC Local Health Data for COVID
was released on April 7th

The province of British Columbia is now entering the surveillance period of the COVID pandemic, gone are the daily briefings and frequent updates from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minster Adrian Dix, instead, we now will only hear word of COVID on a weekly basis with Thursday the day for data delivery in the province. 

The provincial update will bring both the province wide overview and the Local Health Data review to the same day, offering a weekly glimpse into the state of COVID in British Columbia and the Northwest.

How they plan to go forward in their observations on COVID was outlined as part of Thursday statement from the BC Government.

BC Shifts to weekly COVID data reporting

Of note for the path forward is the provincial plan on reporting Deaths which has made for some controversy owing to the wider focus that the health authorities have indicated.

In the new system, all deaths that occurred within 30 days of an individual’s positive lab result will be reported, regardless of whether the underlying cause of death was determined to be COVID-19 or not. This broader definition means that some deaths will be reported that are not related to COVID-19. Knowing when a death occurred can take, on average, four to six days to enter the system.

The new approach to COVID data review is being compared to how the province approaches its Flu Watch program.

The new COVID-19 reporting approach aligns with a shift away from a “case-management” model to a "surveillance” approach that focuses on identifying meaningful changes in COVID-19 trends over time across different regions of the province. It is similar to how government monitors for other serious respiratory illnesses through FluWatch.

As of yesterday, the BC COVID Proof of Vaccination program came to an end, with residents of the Province no longer required to provide for their proof vaccination.

For this week declines in COVID cases marked much of the map for the Northwest this past week.

This week's data  for the period of March 20-26 indicated that most communities in the Northwest had continued to see lower case counts from previous levels.

The results for Prince Rupert provided for an increase of 6 cases from the week prior, Prince Rupert's 9 cases this week puts it at the same level as that found in Terrace.

The northwest count is significantly lower than that of Northern British Columbia's largest community, with Prince George recording a case count of 69 in the period.

The full review across the region for the week of March 27 - April 2  from the BC CDC looks as follows:

Terrace -- 9 cases
Prince Rupert -- 9 cases

Smithers -- 6 cases

Nechako -- 5 cases

Haida Gwaii --  4 cases

Burns Lake --  3 cases

Snow Country-Stikine-Telegraph Creek --  2 cases

Upper Skeena --  1 case

Kitimat --  1 case

Central Coast --  0 cases

Nisga'a Region -- 0 cases

Bella Coola Valley --  0 cases

The Provincial Data Review looks as follows:

1,706 New Cases, with 324 hospitalized, 38 in Critical Care

There have been 357,242 cases of COVID recorded in the province since the arrival of the pandemic

As of April 7th the Province had administered 11,503,889 doses of COVID Vaccine in first, second or booster shots, with a fourth booster program for specific groups to soon get underway.

Thursday's provincial report lists  145 new cases of COVID for the Northern Health region for the reporting week. That makes for a total of 29,443 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic.

For the Northern Health Region in total as of Wednesday, 16 patients are listed as in hospital which is a decrease from last week,  with  3 noted as in Critical Care, which is the same from a weekdfrom a week ago.

The  breakdown of hospitalizations by community in the Northern Health region is not included in the data release information.

COVID review for April 7
British Columbia wide 

COVID review for April 7
Northern Health Region

The larger BC CDC Data release is available here.

Past information statements on COVID and other notes on the Northwest response can be reviewed from our archive page.