Profiles change for Montreal hospital’s COVID-19 patients

MONTREAL - Most patients today who end up being hospitalized for COVID-19 at the Jewish General Hospital are not coming from long-term care centres as they were during the first wave in the pandemic but from their own homes, according to the latest data from the Côte-des-Neiges acute-care institution.

And also unlike the first wave, when most hospitalized patients were in their 80s, the Jewish General is now treating patients in their 50s and 60s in addition to the cohort of older individuals.

“There’s virtually no one coming from the nursing homes,” said Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, executive director of the west-central health authority in charge of the hospital.

In fact, out of 21 COVID19 hospitalized patients on Thursday, only one has come from a long-term care centre, and all the others from their homes. These stats suggest the extent to which the coronavirus is now spreading mostly in the community, making it harder for public health investigators to trace contacts.

Of the 21 patients, four are in their 80s and two are in their 90s, with the oldest being a 95-year-old woman. Three patients are in their 40s, while 10 are in their 50s and 60s. There are another two patients in their 70s.

Rosenberg calls the demographic representation of COVID-19 patients “bimodal,” with two age groups dominating.

During the first wave, roughly 52 per cent of patients were female, reflecting the fact that the majority residents in eldercare homes are women, who tend to live longer than men. In contrast, at the beginning of the second wave, most patients were men.

“When the second wave started (at the end of September), there was a five-to-one ratio at the Jewish General of male to female,” Rosenberg explained.

“Now we’re slowly approaching parity, if I could put it that way. The wave may well have started out in crowded areas that were more frequented by males, like bars and gyms. Now that it’s clearly out in the community. It’s just spreading.”

The numbers at the Jewish General are not observed precisely in the same manner across the city.

Dr. Mylène Drouin, director of the Montreal public health department, has expressed concern about a rising number of patients in the over-65 category. Seniors represented six per cent of new cases three weeks ago, but are now at 12 to 15 per cent.

Drouin noted that about half of those seniors live in private residences.

In March, the Quebec government designated the Jewish General as a COVID-19 treatment centre. During the first wave, half of its patients were coming from beyond the west end of the city.

Today, one-third come from outside the JGH’s administrative territory even though the government’s new policy is that all hospitals in Montreal must treat patients with the severe respiratory illness.

On Thursday, Premier François Legault suggested that the number of new cases in Quebec has plateaued.