Surge strategy enacted to prepare for cases in coming days
Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone pointed to the seriousness of the situation, noting that confirmed cases are forecast to grow to 562 cases per day in the next 14 days.
“It’s not a crystal ball, but with respect to us we have to plan,” Livingstone said. “We can’t get caught off guard to the point where we’re not having resources in place to deal with an influx in cases at that level.”
“Right now we know that the 14 day forecasts over the last few weeks have been quite accurate relative to what we’re seeing. And we also know very well it’s not just those daily cases, it’s what’s happened over the two weeks before hand that really is what we’re worried about with respect to hospitalizations and ICUS imminently over the next couple of weeks.”
“By not acting right now on behalf of the health system, we have the potential to be overwhelmed and this would significantly risk our ability to care for the most urgent patients in both COVID and NON-COVID settings.”
Dr. Susan Shaw, Chief Medical Officer Saskatchewan Health Authority, told the media that the recent exponential growth in cases is concerning for those in healthcare.
“I think the biggest emotion is concern. And again it’s not concern that I’m going to get sick or my colleague’s going to get sick, it’s concern that we’re going to be faced with more people than we can look after. So that’s what this planning is all about. How do we plan to have the right teams available to look after patients that we’re anticipating?”
“Even if we halt transmission completely, we still have all the cases that were, the people that were diagnosed over the last seven to 10 days are just going to start becoming ill enough to require hospital and ICU admission.”
“So really concerned, but there’s also a sense of resolve. We’re in this together. We work as a team. We have experience working under unusual circumstances, and are really pulling together to be able to make sure that we look out for one another while we’re looking out for taking care of our patients and their families.”