B.C. doesn't provide counts of COVID-19 reinfections. Some experts say that's a problem

Infectious disease experts say B.C.'s decision to not count COVID-19 reinfections in weekly case updates may be painting an incomplete picture of the impact of the disease on British Columbians.

It comes amid concerns that B.C.'s new weekly reporting model undercounts cases and deaths from the virus, which continues to claim hundreds of lives across Canada weekly.

According to an emailed statement from a B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) spokesperson, B.C. hasn't captured cases caused by reinfections since daily case reporting switched to a weekly format in April.

"Cases are linked to the first positive COVID-19 PCR test result," the spokesperson said.

"[The number of] people with COVID-19 infection currently in hospital or critical care … is based on the most recent test performed."

Experts have already noted that B.C.'s testing capacity is significantly restricted, especially the more accurate PCR tests, which are reserved for vulnerable populations.

Dr. Caroline Colijn, a mathematician and Canada 150 research chair at Simon Fraser University, said that without counting reinfections, residents could get an inaccurate picture of how the pandemic was playing out in the province.

"[This] probably didn't matter at first, when there were very few reinfections because very few people in B.C. had COVID," she told CBC News in an interview.

"As time goes on, it's going to change. Because the more people that have COVID, the more people are at risk of reinfection for COVID."

Colijn, who is a member of B.C.'s independent COVID-19 modelling group, said not counting reinfections could lead to a "substantial" underreporting of COVID risks in B.C.

The BCCDC spokesperson did not say why reinfections were not counted in weekly statistics but said they would be "working to update the data system" to better quantify them.

Dr. Tara Moriarty, an infectious diseases researcher at the University of Toronto and the founder of COVID-19 Resources Canada, said there was no valid reason for B.C. not to count reinfections.

"It's not helpful for understanding the COVID situation. In fact, it obscures the COVID situation even more," she said.

Moriarty added that other provinces, like Quebec and Manitoba, were much more accurate with their COVID reporting compared to B.C., and that she wasn't aware of other provinces excluding reinfections from their counts.