Number of people in hospital with COVID-19 increases in B.C.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia is seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19.

Weekly numbers released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control show 596 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday compared with 331 last week.

The centre says 54 patients were in intensive care.

It says 59 people who had COVID-19 died in the week that ended May 7, bringing the total number of deaths in B.C. to 3,307 since the start of the pandemic.