VANCOUVER Frontline medical workers, administrators and others are painting a troubling picture of the state of B.C. hospitals, with some intensive care units full and contingency plans underway as staff struggle to keep up with incoming COVID-19 patients. In Fraser Health alone, there are 229 COVID-19 patients, with 67 of them in ICU and high acuity units. Approximately half of them are at Surrey Memorial Hospital, and the health authority is operating at 96 per cent hospital capacity overall, with some hospitals at 100 per cent. Five of the 60 operating rooms normally run by Fraser Health have been already closed so that staff could be diverted to COVID-19 care, according to Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of the health authority. That s forced dozens of non-emergency surgeries to be postponed.
B.C.’s immunization campaign is now rolling out on Vancouver Island and in the Northern and Interior health regions. “The Interior and the North are having quite large transmission events relative to the population,” Henry told a news conference on Monday. The curve of the outbreak is starting to level off amid ongoing public health rules, she said, but hundreds of new cases are still being confirmed each day. B.C. announced 1,667 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday over a three-day period, as well as 41 more deaths, pushing the death toll to 765. The Island Health region reported 21 new confirmed cases and one death. There have now been 11 COVID-19 deaths in Island Health.
VICTORIA Two more cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed Friday at Saanich Peninsula Hospital, where a fatal outbreak has claimed the lives of three people and infected more than 20. Island Health’s vice-president of clinical operations for the South Island confirmed Friday that 11 patients and 11 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus since Dec. 1. “We’re in our third round of testing,” Elin Bjarnason told CFAX 1070. “We’re being extremely diligent.” The new cases had yet to be traced, Bjarnason said Friday morning, though it is likely they are connected to the outbreak. The outbreak is believed to be limited to the hospital’s acute-care areas. New acute-care patients are not being admitted at this time.