While most data metrics to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic in BC were relatively flat last month, there are more patients in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) today than at any time in the past two months. Of the 410 patients in BC hospitals who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, 38 are sick enough to require additional care in ICUs. That compares to 401 COVID-19 patients in BC hospitals a week ago, with 35 of them in ICUs. The last time there were this many COVID-19 patients in BC hospital ICUs was June 2, when there were 41 such patients out of 421 in all hospital wards combined. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province then fell to a low of 273 in weekly updates on June 23 and June 30, before rising in mid-July. The data on new deaths from COVID-19 includes anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days and then died — a calculation that could include people who tested positive and then died in traffic accidents. However, provincial data shows there were 28 new deaths from COVID-19 in the week ending July 30. In the past three weeks, provincial data shows there have been 29, 21 and 22 deaths from COVID-19 respectively. Provincial data have been criticized as unreliable. The province added 32 more people to its COVID-19 death toll of 3,940 people since the first death was recorded in March 2020. At each update for months, the province has added more deaths from COVID-19 to its death toll of those it records as new deaths. Glacier Media asked the Ministry of Health about this, but did not receive an explanation. The ministry’s most recent response was that the data “may be incomplete,” but there was never any update on the previously announced weekly death totals. In April, the Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the process for counting deaths is changing and that the new process will include all deaths involving people infected with COVID-19 in weekly updates and the total number of deaths. He said the province’s Vital Statistics Agency will then determine that some deaths were not due to COVID-19 and will subtract those deaths from the total death toll. The continued increase in the death toll exceeding the number of new deaths is exactly the opposite of what Henry said would happen. Data on new infections has also been widely dismissed, and even Henry earlier this year called the information “inaccurate.” That’s because in December it started telling people who had been vaccinated and had mild symptoms not to get tested and just to self-isolate. He said at the time that this was to increase testing capacity for those with more severe symptoms and those who are most vulnerable. The BCCDC identified 983 new COVID-19 infections in the week ending July 30. This is 62 of the 921 new cases reported a week earlier and increases the number of known cases of COVID-19 in BC. to 379,274 since the first case was detected at the end of January 2020. Screening is now encouraged only in cases where knowledge of the test result could change treatment recommendations. The 14,324 COVID-19 tests conducted in BC in the week ending July 30 were up 1,118 from a week earlier. As there were 983 known new cases, the positive test rate for the week was 6.86 percent, up from 6.97 percent a week earlier. •