BC is past the peak of its Omicron wave, according to wastewater data

BC’s latest wastewater data suggests COVID-19 cases are declining, indicating the province has passed the peak of its Omicron wave.

But hospital occupancy and approximate case counts are still higher than any time prior to Omicron throughout the pandemic, according to a May 18 slide deck from the BC COVID-19 Modelling Group.

Case data from BC COVID-19 Database

You might also like:
• "Mother of all variants" could keep COVID-19 in the driver seat
• How hard did Omicron hit? There's new insight as Canada deals with sixth wave
• One in nine hospitalized COVID-19 patients died or were readmitted to hospital: study

The scientists say the turnaround in COVID-19 infections this time is driven by growing population immunity, unlike previous behaviour-driven declines.

Although few people can access a PCR test to be included in the government’s case reporting data, the modelling group says hospitalizations and reported cases are stabilizing across BC.

The majority of cases in May are the Omicron BA.2 lineage, which spread faster than Omicron BA.2