BC reveals actual number of people in hospital dealing with effects of COVID-19

Photo: The Canadian Press

The Ministry of Health has finally broken its silence, explaining how COVID-19 hospitalizations are counted and classified in B.C.

The announcement comes in response to reporting by CTV News, and public pressure, that raised questions about a lack of transparency in how many people are still in hospital dealing with the impacts of COVID-19, but are no longer infectious.

Today, the provincial government confirmed that those patients are not counted as a part of the government's daily announcements.

As of Sept. 21, the Ministry of Health says there were 152 of these “discontinued isolation” patients in B.C. hospitals.

These are in addition to the COVID patient totals announced daily, which on Thursday, were reported as 330 infectious and still in hospital, 148 of them in intensive care.

“Discontinued isolation reporting is anchored in B.C.'s public-health guidelines,” said the Ministry of Health in a statement Friday.

“For most cases, isolation is discontinued after 10 days, provided there is no fever and symptoms are improving. These same requirements are in effect in Ontario, Alberta and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. In B.C., for serious cases, the guideline is 20 days. That 20-day guideline varies according to each patient's unique circumstances and is, for this reason, a clinical decision.”

The ministry says the “discontinued isolation” cases are reported separately from B.C.’s COVID numbers but are included in reports on overall hospital capacity.

“These cases do not directly contribute to the epidemiological picture of the pandemic, but importantly, make a significant contribution to public awareness and understanding of hospitals' readiness to provide care,” the ministry said.

“The Ministry of Health looks at hospitalizations and critical-care beds to ensure the sustainability of the system. It looks at those numbers in the context of the overall capacity to ensure the system is running efficiently at or near capacity, but not over capacity,” the statement continued.