IS SPIKE IN HOSPITALIZATIONS A TREND?
Outbreak at St-eustache facility shows hospitals continue to be vulnerable
Quebec on Thursday posted its biggest uptick in hospitalizations since May 13 amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in day camps and other venues across the province.
In addition to the spike of 18 new hospitalizations, the number of patients being treated in intensive care doubled to 18 — an increase that also has not been observed in weeks. Public health officials offered no explanations other than to note the transfer of data to a different computer system caused errors in the number of cases and deaths, but not hospitalizations.
The Hôpital de Saint-eustache, meanwhile, announced Thursday it was hit with an outbreak that has infected 14 patients and 11 staff since Monday. The patients, who had been treated in three different wards, have been transferred to an isolation unit, while the infected staff have been sent home.
Cleaning crews are disinfecting the three wards, and on Friday the hospital will test all workers to gain a clearer picture of the extent of the contagion.
“We’re taking this situation very seriously and will spare no effort to put an end to the outbreak as quickly as possible,” Rosemonde Landry, executive director of the Laurentian health authority, said in a statement.
“I’m calling on all people who visit our facilities — whether it’s our hospital, our CLSC clinics, our rehab centres or our CHSLD facilities — to wear a mask, wash your hands and respect the distancing rule of two metres.”
Still, Landry acknowledged that the presence of the coronavirus in the community, coupled with asymptomatic people carrying the virus without knowing it, have complicated efforts to control the contagion.
The big question is whether Thursday’s spike in hospitalizations signals a trend. Most people who have contracted COVID-19 in the past month are between the ages of 14 and 40, and have gathered in large house parties, bars and participating in sports activities. They are less likely to be hospitalized, but over time those who are infected may have unwittingly transmitted the virus to their parents and grandparents.
That has been the trend in the United States, where community transmission among younger people gradually moved to older age groups, resulting in a massive surge in hospitalizations in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Quebec is far from reporting those numbers, and on July 18 it imposed mandatory masks in all public spaces to stem the spread of the virus.
However, the province did reopen bars on June 25 — a decision that was criticized by public health experts. Five days later, Quebec witnessed its first COVID -19 outbreak at the Mile Public House pub in Brossard. On July 11, the Montreal public health department called on anyone who visited a bar since July 1 to get tested following outbreaks linked to drinking establishments.
Since then, at least 27 people connected to a day camp in Boucherville have contracted COVID -19. A tennis club in Hudson and a hockey summer camp in Notre-dame-de-grâce have closed in less than a week after children and teenagers tested positive. Three SAQ alcohol stores shut on Wednesday in Blainville and Mirabel after eight employees got infected.
There appear to be few obvious signs of a sharp rise in hospitalizations in Montreal, although the city’s emergency rooms are once again overflowing — a problem that is not being blamed on the pandemic, though.
The Mcgill University Health Centre, which oversees the Montreal General and Royal Victoria hospitals, admitted a couple of patients in the last few days, but the total inched up to five.
During the peak of the pandemic’s first wave at the end of April, the Jewish General Hospital was tending to more than three dozen patients. But on Thursday, three patients were hospitalized. Of the three, a 91-year-old woman was admitted Wednesday from home.
Notwithstanding the woman’s case, the majority of current COVID-19 patients at the Jewish General are well below the age of 70, said Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, executive director of the centre-west health authority. Rosenberg suggested some people who are scheduled for elective surgery have discovered they have COVID-19 during a preoperative workup, and as a consequence are hospitalized until their infection clears.
While a one-day spike in hospitalizations does not a trend make, the Saint-eustache outbreak demonstrates hospitals continue to be vulnerable. Yet despite the COVID-19 resurgence and clusters of cases across the province, the government is pressing ahead with its plan to boost the size of public gatherings from 50 to 250 this Monday — a decision it may soon come to regret.
While a one-day spike in hospitalizations does not a trend make, the Saint-eustache outbreak demonstrates hospitals continue to be vulnerable.