B.C. health officials mum as controversy mounts over 'anti-democratic' reporting policy

British Columbia health officials are facing mounting criticism and questions in the wake of a CTV News story exposing their practice of only publicly reporting the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital who are infectious.

British Columbia health officials are facing mounting criticism and questions in the wake of a CTV News story exposing their practice of only publicly reporting the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital who are infectious.

It’s been one week since CTV News first asked the Ministry of Health to reveal the total number of patients in hospital due to COVID-19, but despite repeated efforts to get the information and an explanation as to why the true figure is kept secret, officials have not responded.

"I think it's totally unacceptable, I think it's anti-democratic, I think it's counterproductive,” said Damian Contandriopoulos, a public health researcher and professor at the University of Victoria. “In B.C. we cannot have rational debates (about) whether a situation is under control, where the problems are, what we should do, because we don't have the numbers."

British Columbia only publishes the number of ICU patients who are still contagious with COVID-19 and therefore still require extra safety protocols for staff, but still keeps track of all patients, which the provincial health officer acknowledged Tuesday.

"What we report on a daily basis is based on the epidemiologic information,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, referring to the patients sick enough to need hospitalization.

She acknowledged that “census information,” or the overall number of patients in hospital for COVID-19 and other reasons, is kept separately and “helps us look at health-care system impact on a day-to-day basis.”

Henry did not explain why they don’t report both numbers, which only a small circle of healthcare workers are privy to, only that they’ve maintained the same reporting policy since the start of the pandemic.