B.C.’s unvaccinated vast majority of ICU cases in province

LANGLEY (NEWS 1130) — B.C.’s health minister is not mincing words about vaccine holdouts and their impacts on the medical system. Of the 130 critical care patients in intensive care units, 111 are unvaccinated.

Adrian Dix says patients are receiving some of the best care in the world at the hands of health-care workers who are putting their own well-being at risk.

“Everyone would rather be doing something else,” Dix said Thursday, adding, “these numbers demonstrate again the seriousness of COVID-19,” and the small percentage of those without the shot, are making up the majority of those needing the healthcare support.

“None of those under 50 (years old), who are in ICU at present, are fully vaccinated,” Dix said.

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There are 10 patients who only have one dose also receiving intensive care, and nine people who are fully vaccinated. Dix says the numbers clearly show the weight of unvaccinated patients on the sector. During the last two weeks, people who are not fully vaccinated accounted for 86.3 per cent of hospitalizations.

After factoring for age, people not vaccinated are 34 times more likely to be hospitalized than those fully vaccinated. Following new research into the $50,000 average costs of a COVID-19 patient, Dix was asked if someone who is unvaccinated should be responsible for the costs on the health care system, Dix says the province will not be considering that.

B.C.’s latest COVID-19 case counts show the trend of high numbers of new cases and hospitalizations remains. There were 774 new cases Thursday, five new deaths, and 262 people in hospital.

#BREAKING: BC is reporting 774 new cases of #COVID19 in the past 24 hours, along with five more deaths. Of the active cases, 262 are in the hospital, of whom 130 are in the ICU. #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/SmGaliaWjD

— John Ackermann ???? (@jackermann) September 9, 2021

Interior Health has the highest number of cases, with 253. Fraser Health has 233 new cases, and three deaths. Vancouver Coastal Health has 123 new cases. Northern Health has 98 new cases, and one person has died. Island Health cases remain high for that region, with 65, and had one new death.

There are no new healthcare outbreaks, but 22 facilities are still dealing with COVID-19 cases.