COVID-19: Several Vancouver hospitals are near 100 per cent capacity

Intensive care numbers at highest levels, hospitalizations near January peak

COVID-19 hospitalizations are starting to stretch the capacities of some hospitals in Metro Vancouver as infection cases continue at high levels and more-transmissible virus variants surge.

B.C. health officials have noted there are particular concerns at Vancouver General, Lions Gate and Surrey Memorial hospitals, with bed occupancy close to 100 per cent.

On Tuesday, B.C. reported 377 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, up from 368 on Monday. Of those, 116 were in intensive care, down from 121 on Monday, but still 30 per cent of all hospitalizations.

The hospitalizations peaked on Jan. 6 at 381, but intensive care numbers are now at their highest levels.

Test-positive infection cases have continued at above or near daily levels of 1,000 for nearly two weeks, the highest levels since the pandemic started early last year.

“These numbers are extremely concerning, especially ICU and hospitalization,” Dr. Kevin McLeod, an internal medicine specialist at Lions Gate Hospital, observed in a social media post.

In an overview Monday of hospital capacity, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix noted there were a total of 876 regular hospital beds vacant and 122 critical care beds vacant. That number of available beds is higher if surge beds are included — an additional 231 critical care beds, for example.

Dix said while hospital occupancy was manageable and capacity remains good in critical care, because of the near 100 per cent occupancy in key Metro Vancouver hospitals, steps have been taken to better support hospital staff. Those steps include redeploying eight critical-care-trained nurses to support the Fraser Health Authority, home to Surrey Memorial, and a temporary halt to some surgeries at Surrey, Abbotsford and Royal Columbian hospitals.

“We'll continue to monitor the daily occupancy rate and take specific actions to reduce stress on the health system as needed through this redeployment of staff,” said Dix. “This will not be like last year where we cancelled, en masse, our scheduled surgeries, but will be targeted and for as short a period as possible.”

The increased cases and hospitalizations are being driven, in part, by a significant rise in virus variants of concern, that include the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7), the Brazil variant (P.1) and the South African variant (B.1.351).

Variant cases make up as much as 50 per cent of all cases now, according to B.C. health officials.