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New COVID-19 cases in Burnaby fall once again: data

Data recorded from May 15 to 21.
covid-19-testing-site-fraser-health
A COVID-19 testing site in Fraser Health.

COVID-19 infections in Burnaby decreased for a second straight week, according to new government data. 

The BC Centre for Disease Control's (BCCDC) Geographic Distribution of COVID-19 by Local Health Area of Case Residence shows the city saw 73 cases from May 15 to 21, 2022. 

There were 74 cases from May 8 to 14, 2022. 

Provincial update

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in B.C. has fallen by 67 in the past week, to 473 — the fewest since April 14.

Of those, 42 people are sick enough to be in intensive care units (ICUs), which is down by seven in the past week, and is the lowest since May 5. 

Another 42 people are listed as having died with COVID-19 in the week up to May 21, even though the province's pandemic death toll rose by 71, to 3,469, in that time frame.

The number of new COVID-19 deaths in B.C. in a seven-day span has consistently been a lower number than that which the province's pandemic death toll has risen since the province shifted to reporting COVID-19 data on a weekly basis in early April. 

This is the opposite of what provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in early April said would happen. 

When the province shifted to providing weekly COVID-19 data updates it changed how those deaths were calculated. The new system is that all deaths are counted if the person tested positive for the virus in the past 30 days, and then died — a calculation that would include car accidents.  

As a result, Dr. Henry said that the new system would overcount deaths initially, and that the death toll would then be altered weeks or months later, when the province's Vital Statistics Agency confirmed that some deaths were not related to COVID-19.

When Glacier Media asked the B.C. ministry of health about this, an official said the reason was that death totals were "tentative."

Data for new infections has long been widely dismissed, and even Dr. Henry earlier this year called it "not accurate."

This is because in December she started telling people who were vaccinated and had mild symptoms to not get tested and to simply self-isolate. She said at the time that this was to increase testing capacity for those with more serious symptoms and those who are more vulnerable.

Nonetheless, B.C. today (May 26) reported 1,358 known cases in the week up until May 21.

In that week, officials conducted 22,210 tests, for a 6.11 per cent positive-test rate. That is the lowest positive test rate since April 14. 

- with files from Glen Korstrom, Business In Vancouver