Province adds 400 acute-care beds as COVID-19 infections keep rising
With COVID-19 cases continuing to surge in Alberta and the virus's death toll hitting 500, the province is readying 400 more ICU beds to handle the expected growth in serious infections, the province's top doctor said Wednesday.
Alberta hospitals have also exceeded a benchmark of 70 full acute-care COVID-19 beds, with 71 patients on Wednesday — an increase of five over Tuesday.
It's crossed a threshold “where we'd be crossing into territory where we'd be impacting other patients' care,” said Alberta's chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
“Unfortunately, the way that (extra) space is made available is winding down care for people who can wait a little longer for it,” she said.
Hinshaw said it's hoped most of those beds will never be needed, nor the mass redeployment of staff, and that new public health measures announced by the province Tuesday would help prevent that.
“I would hope we never have to utilize that number of beds — it would result in stopping not just elective surgeries but move to more urgent surgeries to be postponed,” she said.
Numerous elective surgeries in Edmonton have already been postponed amid a spiking number of COVID-19 patients in the province's hospitals, which now number 355, an increase of seven from Tuesday.
Some physicians say the healthcare system, particularly in Edmonton, is already in crisis due to the added weight of COVID-19 infections.
“We're seeing some alarming situations in our hospitals … this is a real concern,” said Dr. Tehseen Ladha, a pediatrician with a background in public health.
She said the added measures to reduce the virus's spread aren't enough, and forecast a difficult Christmas season.
“They will slow down the rate of spread, but it's too little too late,” said Ladha.
On Monday, Peter Lougheed Centre ICU physician Dan Niven said if the current COVID-19 trends continue in the province, ICU beds could be triaged, or prioritized.
On Wednesday, the province reported another 1,265 cases and nine deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 500.
The province has recorded 200 of those deaths in the past month alone.
Among the latest fatalities was a woman in her 50s with pre-existing conditions in the Edmonton zone.
The number of new daily cases now consistently exceeds 1,000, with the positivity rate from testing currently around eight per cent — eight times the level in the spring.
On Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney announced a new suite of measures and restrictions in a bid to halt the rapidly worsening COVID-19 onslaught.
Those measures include a ban on private indoor social gatherings, tighter limits on retail and church occupancy, and mandated online instruction for junior and senior high school students beginning Monday until Jan. 11.
Dining out must be confined to family groups, while funerals and weddings are limited to 10 attendees with no receptions and retail outlets are limited to 25 per cent legal capacity.
There is still no provincewide mandatory mask order, but they must be worn in all workplaces in the Calgary and Edmonton areas.
On Wednesday, NDP health critic David Shepherd demanded the government reveal what recommendations Hinshaw presented to cabinet members before their decision, suggesting the government was playing politics with its restrictions.
“It's obvious that the small package of half-measures Kenney announced (Tuesday) were all that he could convince the extremist fringe of his caucus to accept,” said Shepherd.
“Albertans have the right to hear Dr. Hinshaw's unfiltered, professional advice, and judge Kenney's decisions for themselves.”
He questioned what went into the government's restriction exemptions, saying the source of more than 80 per cent of newer COVID-19 cases aren't known, since contact tracing is no longer being done on infections older than 10 days.
“Kenney did not base these exemptions on data, because that data doesn't exist,” Shepherd said. “He failed to prepare Alberta's contact-tracing system for the second wave.”
On Wednesday, Hinshaw refused to reveal what measures she recommended or were rejected, only saying she received an appreciative hearing from lawmakers.
“I'm grateful my recommendations have always been respectfully considered in these decisions … my recommendations were a broad range of options and were respectfully considered,” she said.
She also said the new steps “will impact transmission” but are dependent on widespread compliance, adding the effects won't be fully clear for another three weeks.
Beginning Wednesday, the province also imposed further restrictions on public access to acutecare settings with virus outbreaks, with those admitted to hospital or in emergency care limited to one visitor, as are those in maternity care and end-of-life situations.
Those in pediatric or critical care are allowed two designated visitors.