Health system prepares for COVID patient spike as pandemic restrictions end
CBC
Manitoba Shared Health is planning for another spike in hospital admissions for COVID-19 now that public health restrictions have been eliminated.
Manitoba's indoor mask mandate, in place since August, ended early Tuesday morning. So did mandatory isolation for people infected with COVID-19.
In a new COVID-19 recovery plan made public Tuesday, Shared Health said it is preparing for a potential spike in COVID transmission in the coming weeks.
As of Tuesday, Manitoba had 410 COVID patients in hospital, including 18 in intensive care.
"While Manitoba moves into the next phase of pandemic management, with recommendations replacing requirements and public health restrictions, it is anticipated that COVID-19 activity will increase and hospital admissions and ICU admissions may also rise," the document says.
To handle an expected rise in serious COVID-19 infections, Shared Health intends to maintain ICU capacity at 110 beds, with 87 devoted to adult medical patients and 23 to cardiac patients.
Manitoba had 97 patients in intensive care on Tuesday.
Shared Health also plans to reduce the ICU patient burden by administering antiviral drugs and monoclonal antibodies to COVID patients at the highest risk of serious outcomes.
As of March 9, Manitoba had dispensed 212 oral antiviral treatments and 502 doses of monoclonal antibodies, which are administered intravenously, the COVID recovery plan says.
"These treatments must be offered very quickly after symptom onset, so nearly immediate testing and referral is required in order for treatment to be given in the five-to-seven-day eligibility period," the document says.
At the same time as it braces for more patients, Shared Health says it is planning to return hospital operations to normal.
The recovery document says surgeries have already returned to pre-pandemic levels at Victoria General Hospital in Winnipeg and "various facilities" in the Prairie Mountain Health and Southern Health regions.
This week, the return of staff who were seconded to COVID care will allow normal operations at Victoria Hospital, the resumption of endoscopies at Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg and more cardiac surgeries at Winnipeg's St. Boniface Hospital, the document says.
Next week, organ transplants are slated to resume at Health Sciences Centre and endoscopies will return to Seven Oaks hospital, the plan says.
Kamloops Coun. Bill Sarai has apologized after admitting he secretly recorded his argument with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson in January 2023, then sent a snippet of the conversation to the mayor, suggesting someone else had recorded it.
Yellowknife city council removed $550,000, intended to operate its own dog pound, from the city's draft budget on Monday.
The RCMP says it's considering deploying Mounties-in-training to help police the Canada-U.S. border as political anxiety over border control mounts in the face of tariff threats from the incoming Trump administration.
The death and destruction in the Crosschild family didn't stop at the domestic murder of Autumn, a 25-year-old Indigenous woman killed by Brandon Yellowfly, the man she once wanted to marry.
Josh Smee imagines a future in which food banks no longer exist in Canada, because people don't need them.
The Toronto Transit Commission board has voted to ban electric bikes with lithium-ion batteries from TTC vehicles and stations from November 15 to April 15 each year due to safety concerns.
Prince Edward Island now has a law on the books to regulate service dogs, but it could be two more years before it comes into effect.
The partner of a man who went missing near Chetwynd, B.C. more than six weeks ago says she believes their dog, which disappeared at the same time, has been found alive.
WARNING: This story contains details of sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Multinational food corporation Cargill said on Tuesday it plans to cut roughly five per cent of its staff, or about 8,000 jobs.
The season's first blast of winter weather continued Tuesday in the region and north of the city with some schools and school purpose vehicles cancelled and plows out in force on the roads.