As of Monday, there were 25 COVID-19 patients at Richmond Hospital, up from 22 last week, and one person is in the intensive care unit.
Throughout the province, the total number of people in hospital with COVID-19 hit a record number of 854 on Tuesday, up by 35 from Monday.
In the meantime, over the first two weeks of January, 41 surgeries and procedures have been cancelled at Richmond Hospital.
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) noted, however, urgent and emergency surgeries and procedures are still going ahead.
The number of COVID-19 cases detected in Richmond, however, has come down since last week.
Neighbourhood-based data reported by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) showed 285 people in Richmond tested positive for COVID-19 between Jan. 17 and Jan. 13.
This number was around 600 the week before.
The number of COVID-19 cases detected in Richmond range from 79 in the Blundell neighbourhood to 18 in Steveston. (See below for full list of neighbourhood cases.)
During the month of December, 112,000 tests were either administered or distributed for home use in the VCH area - this is 70 per cent more than in November.
BCCDC, however, has revised its COVID-19 testing guidelines, with people moving toward self-managing the illness.
“Most people will not require testing and can stay at home until they feel well enough to resume regular activities,” VCH said in a statement. “They will not be asked to adhere to prescriptive public health guidance.”
Public health, including testing, will be prioritized for those at highest risk, those who can benefit the most from treatment, to manage outbreaks and cases and clusters in high-priority setting, according the VCH statement.
Some testing sites had up to four-hour waits around the holidays, according to the online waitlist.
This waitlist, however, was disabled as VCH was having technical difficulties – at times, there were longer waits than posted on the website, which VCH acknowledged and apologized for.
The health authority wasn’t able to say when it would be back online.
Richmond COVID-19 cases: Jan. 7-13
City Centre: 79
East-West Cambie/Bridgeport: 52
Gilmore/Shellmont/East/Hamilton: 43
Broadmoor: 33
Thompson/Seafair: 31
Blundell: 29
Steveston: 18
