Two contacts found to have COVID-19 symptoms

Nurses union criticizes response, calls for declaration of outbreak

Seventy-two people have so far been identified as contacts of a patient who tested positive for COVID -19 at Regina’s Pasqua Hospital on Wednesday, according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

That’s up from the roughly 60 contacts the SHA reported on Thursday, when the positive case was first shared with the public. According to information the SHA provided to the Leader-post Friday, 38 people have now been identified as close contacts of the patient and are self isolating. Thirty-four more are considered nonclose contacts.

Fifty-five contacts had been tested as of Friday afternoon. Two have symptoms, according to the SHA, but no additional positive cases of COVID -19 had been confirmed.

The patient who tested positive was a resident of an independent living home. The SHA has not yet managed to identify where the patient contracted the disease.

Revera, which runs the Renaissance Retirement Residence in Regina, posted a statement dated May 13 to its website confirming a COVID-19 positive case among one of its residents there. Revera did not return a request for comment, though its statement pointed to enhanced cleaning and physical distancing efforts.

Asked why the health authorities waited until the next day, May 14, to publicly report the case at the Pasqua, the SHA said more time was needed to “inform contacts identified and manage them.”

Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), has heard reports that one of the two symptomatic people was identified as a non-close contact of the patient from the seniors’ home. She called that “troubling.”

“That makes it even a little bit more scary, because, if it’s a nonclose contact, that is someone who would move more around the hospital, probably, and would not be someone who would be tied to that ward,” she said.

Zambory has been critical of the SHA response to the Pasqua Hospital case. On Friday, she repeated her call for an outbreak to be declared and asked why the SHA isn’t closing down the unit where the patient was being cared for.

“We’re not satisfied with how

If it’s a non-close contact, that is someone who would move more around the hospital ...

things are going and how they’ve gone thus far and how they continue to go right now,” she said.

The SHA said an investigation is still underway to determine whether an outbreak should be declared. As of now, however, no transmission has been documented in the hospital. That’s why the unit remains open, according to the SHA.

Zambory suspects the number of health workers who are self-isolating will grow.

“It’s just that ripple effect,” she said. “It’s definitely going to have an effect on staffing at the Pasqua.”

The SHA was not immediately able to provide a response on how self-isolation measures for staff are affecting operations at the hospital.