The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
• Hospitalizations to peak in coming weeks
Health officials expect the number of hospitalizations to peak at about 200 people over the coming weeks.
“The model suggests we'll peak somewhere around 60 patients in critical care and somewhere around 140 in acute care, which is within our current capacity,” said Brendan Carr, CEO of Nova Scotia Health, at a news briefing Friday afternoon.
“We're watching the model day by day.”
While some resources have been reallocated from other health-care sectors to critical care, also known as intensive care, “we're trying to do as much normal work as we can while caring for COVID patients,” Carr said.
“We do feel we will have the acute care capacity that we will require. We will be stressed, absolutely, and one of the benefits of having a provincial system like we do, essentially we have resources around the province . ... We'll be using all of those resources to respond to this over the next number of weeks.”
On Friday afternoon, there were 89 people in hospital, including 29 people in intensive care. Most of the ICU patients — 23 — are in the central zone with six others in regional ICUS.
But those numbers can change by the hour, said Dr. Tony O'leary, a co-lead of provincial escalation planning, which oversees changes in hospital bed use during times of emergency such as the pandemic.
O'leary said the youngest person in intensive care is in their early 20s and the oldest in their late 60s.
Most ICU patients are over 40 “although you get one or two younger people,” O'leary said. “That certainly seems a younger cohort than you would have expected in Wave 1 (of the pandemic).”
The officials were asked how many people in intensive care had received a vaccine but that kind of information isn't tracked, O'leary said.
COVID OUTBREAK AT INFIRMARY
The officials were asked about the COVID-19 outbreak on the eighth floor of the Halifax Infirmary, which includes orthopedic surgery and nonsurgery (medical) patients.
Over the past several days, nine patients have tested positive on the floor and have been transferred to the COVID floor.
Carr said the cause of the outbreak is being investigated.
“We have very strict and very consistent protocols,” he said. “Any patient coming into the hospital are tested multiple times. We know that a number of patients who became positive had had negative tests done before being admitted. Testing is important but it can change day to day.”
He said hospital staff are trained to assume COVID-19 is present and protocols are in place such as protective equipment to prevent exposure.
As a precaution, staff and doctors who have worked on the floor are being tested.
“When you look at the number of staff members who have had infections, we're pretty confident that the PPE protocols we are using are very effective against these infections," Carr said.
The health authority couldn't provide numbers for the Halifax Infirmary staff specifically but 22 health-care workers in the central zone have tested positive. Of those, 13 are considered recovered and nine remain off-work. There are 23 additional workers who are isolation for reasons such as potential exposure to the virus.