Big drop in influenza rates, surgeries surge

While hospitalization rates in BC remain very high, it appears the worst of the early and serious respiratory season may be over.

Meanwhile, the provincial government says an all-time record number of surgeries have happened despite the challenging circumstances.

Officials say there has been a continued reduction in influenza rates and a stabilization in COVID-19, although RSV cases remain high. There has been a decrease of over 100 people filling hospital beds across the province in the last week although the total number is still above 10,000.

“Our data indicate influenza in all age groups has steadily declined from the peak,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during a media update Friday. She said that peak resulted in a 27 per cent test positivity back in November but has now dropped to around five per cent.

Henry added there had been no further fatalities linked to influenza since the six cases in early December that caused the deaths of four children under the age of nine, and two teen adolescents.

Henry said the surge in cases for kids was because large cohorts of children were not exposed to the flu virus given the extensive restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially global travel measures.

“Influenza didn’t spread through the first two years of the pandemic so there are people whose immune systems haven’t developed the protections they needed,” she explained.

She said influenza A - the strain that has been causing so many issues – is decreasing, and a wave of influenza B is probable later in the winter, although unlikely to cause as much serious illness.

“So far we haven’t seen a lot of that, it does tend to happen later in the season, and it tends not to be as severe, because most of us have had exposure to influenza B at some point in our lives,” she explained.

Hospitalizations down

Hospitalizations are slowly coming down across BC. On Jan. 13, there were 10,106 people hospitalized for all causes. On Jan. 6, 10,226 people were in hospital, so that represents a decrease of 110, although the total numbers are still 110 per cent of base bed capacity.

British Columbia traditionally experiences an increase in hospitalizations in January as people access care after the holiday period. This coincides with increases in respiratory illnesses and surgeries ramping back up after the holiday slowdown.

RSV activity remains high, although it has also levelled off in recent weeks. The RSV test positivity rate continues to exceed that of influenza (14% compared with 5%). COVID-19 cases have remained relatively stable since October 2022, with hospitalization levels decreasing.

From Jan. 1-7, there were 661 new cases of COVID-19 reported. To date, there have been 24 confirmed cases of the XBB 1.5 variant detected.

The respiratory illness season is expected to continue until March 2023 and the government repeated its call for people to get vaccinated against influenza and COVID-19.

Record number of surgeries

Meanwhile, Health Minister Adrian Dix pointed to what he called an all-time record for BC in terms of surgeries despite the serious challenges facing the heath care system.

He said there were 4,698 surgeries performed in the week of Dec. 18-24, but the week before that (Dec. 11-17), 7,463 surgeries took place.

“At a time when many of you [the media] were reporting the challenges in the health care system, we were completing more surgeries than in any week, at any time in the history of the health care system in British Columbia,” he said.