Omicron cases have peaked in B.C., but hospitalizations rising: Dr. Henry

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“And then there is a lag of about another week before we start to see a decrease in hospital census.”

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The public health officer said there will be no changes to the current public health orders, and that it will be a “challenging next few weeks on hospitals.”

“We know the peak is coming at the same time that we’re still seeing health care workers off work, not being able to go to work.”

(Image credit: Province of B.C.)

Henry added the transmission rates are not the same in all of B.C., noting Omicron took off first in Vancouver Coastal, Fraser Health and on Vancouver Island first.

“We’re now starting to see it slow down a bit in Interior Health, and in Northern Health, we’re still on that upward trajectory. Omicron moved into that part later than other parts of the province, but it really is the highly populous Lower Mainland that is driving the epidemic curve for B.C.”

Henry said the Omicron wave started in younger people in their 20s and 30s and then moved into older age groups, which is similar to the previous COVID waves.

“But this has been much faster than we’ve seen in any other wave.”

Henry said they are seeing an increase in hospitalizations for younger people (0-19), and more concerning, a dramatic increase in people over age 70 who are having severe illness and ending up in hospital and some dying.

“Even with two vaccine doses, there is still a risk in older people because as they don’t mount as strong an immune response, so even if you have two doses, it’s really important to get a booster dose.”

The province’s top doctor said there are about 50,000 people over age 70 that have had two doses but not a booster yet.

“Whatever age you are, hospitalization is much higher if you don’t have any immune priming or protection from vaccinations.”

Henry stated that two-thirds of people who have died from COVID in the last month are people who were not vaccinated.

(Image credit: Province of B.C.)

Also on Friday, Henry said the Omicron cases in younger people have shown a different pattern.

“It’s more of an upper respiratory illness. It behaves more like some of the other respiratory viruses and triggers things like asthma, airway disease and bronchiolitis in young children, so that’s most commonly the reason why they’re in hospital.”

Henry stated the province has seen a large increase in respiratory viruses, much like a normal season.

“We still have a little bit of influenza, not a lot this year, but it’s out there, and it’s causing illness in young people.”

The doctor said people admitted to hospital for an Omicron infection tend to have a shorter hospital stay and less severe illness than those with the Delta variant, with the median length of stay about half what it was with Delta and the need for critical care is down by about two-thirds.

Health Minister Adrian Dix is pleased with the number of people getting booster doses.

“Over the last week, 319,752 booster doses have been administered in B.C., an extraordinary achievement. Yesterday was a record number with 58,685. That’s just booster doses,” Dix reported.

The minister said from Jan. 3-9, 21,517 health care workers were off sick due to illness of all kinds including COVID-19. From Jan. 10-12, the number was 11,010.

To put that in perspective, there are 188,000 active health care workers in B.C.

“So there are a lot of health care workers, but this is still a lot of people who are affected in some way by sickness,” Dix remarked.