Skip to content

New Westminster's COVID-19 case count trends down again

It's still unclear how many actual cases there are in B.C., but both local trends and provincewide hospitalization data show signs of optimism.
COVID test swab
The actual number of COVID-19 cases in B.C. remains unknown, but New Westminster's trend line is moving in the right direction: down.

It remains anyone's guess how many cases of COVID-19 are in New Westminster — but, on the up side, the trend line is heading in the right direction.

The city saw six new officially recorded cases between Sept. 11 and 17, according to the latest B.C. Centre for Disease Control data. That's down from 16 reported last week, and 10 the week before that.

As has been the case since January, those numbers do not reflect the total number of actual COVID cases in the city. Official public case counts are considered to be a vast undercount of COVID-19 cases in B.C., since the majority of people have not been eligible for testing since the beginning of 2022.

In fact, in August, the B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Group suggested the real number of cases was likely 100 times higher than officially reported numbers.

The current state of the pandemic in British Columbia remains unclear.

The B.C. Ministry of Health had planned a briefing for last Monday, Sept. 12, to update media and the public about the state of COVID-19 in the province, including epidemiological modelling. However, that briefing was first moved to Thursday, Sept. 15 and then cancelled altogether; a new date for the briefing has yet to be announced.

COVID-19 hospitalization data makes small improvements in B.C.

Provincewide hospitalization data continues to show improvements.

The number of people in B.C. hospitalized with COVID-19 now stands at 305, down nine from last week — the lowest tally for COVID-19 hospitalizations in B.C. since June 30.

Of those in hospital with the disease, 22 are sick enough to be in intensive care units (ICUs), one fewer than last week.

Hospitalization data is not available on a local level, so New Westminster-specific numbers are unavailable.

Where can I find B.C. COVID-19 data?

For the latest information available regarding variants of concern, vaccination, local case counts and more, see the BCCDC's COVID-19 data page.

– with files from Glen Korstrom

Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca