The province's data shows new Burnaby COVID-19 infections fell during the past week.
The Geographic Distribution of COVID-19 by Local Health Area of Case Residence says Burnaby recorded 62 cases from May 22 to 28, 2022.
The city saw 73 infections detected from May 15 to 21, 2021.
Hospitalizations drop throughout B.C.
Various metrics show that the COVID-19 pandemic in B.C. has been on the wane through May.
The 421 people now hospitalized with COVID-19 is the lowest total since April 14, when there were 364 such people. Of those, 41 are sick enough to be in intensive care units (ICU) – the fewest since May 5, when there were 39 such patients.
The BC Centre for Disease Control calculated that for the week that ended May 28, 44 people had died with COVID-19. This is up by two from the week that ended May 21, and it includes anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days and then died. That calculation may include people who tested positive and then died in a car accident.
The government's process is to include those deaths initially, and then have the Vital Statistics Agency determine which deaths were not COVID-19-related and remove them from the total.
As has been the case in each weekly update since the government shifted to only providing data once per week, the presumed COVID-19 death toll has risen by more than the number of new deaths. That is the opposite of what Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said would happen when she unveiled the new system in early April. B.C.'s COVID-19 death toll rose by 58 in the week that ended May 28, despite only 44 new deaths reported.
The BC CDC detected 1,163 new COVID-19 infections in the week that ended May 28. That is the lowest weekly total since the province shifted to weekly updates, on April 7.
Data for new infections, however, has long been widely dismissed, and even 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.
- with files from Glen Korstrom, Business In Vancouver
