Most B.C. COVID patients test positive after going to hospital for other reasons

British Columbia's top doctor says COVID-19 hospitalizations are at their highest level and over 60 per cent of patients since December have tested positive for the virus after being admitted for other reasons.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says 706 people have been hospitalized in the last week, but the numbers appear to be peaking.

She says patients who contracted the dominant Omicron variant are going home in about half the time compared with those who are sickened with the Delta variant.

Dr. Henry says 16 per cent of people hospitalized since Dec. 1 have needed critical care, a much smaller proportion than previous waves of the pandemic though people over age 80 are most at risk of needing care.

She says new guidelines mean people in long-term care homes will be able to have both an essential and a designated visitor and anyone coming into facilities must be vaccinated.

B.C. has also changed the way outbreaks are declared at long-term care homes, and Henry says that means visitors will be allowed even when there are COVID-19 cases, based on the recommendations of medical health officers.