(File photo of SHA CEO Scott Livingstone/CJME)

By paNOW Staff

covid-19

SHA says ICU capacity at nearly 100 per cent as COVID cases surge

Nov 26, 2020 | 3:26 PM

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has highlighted the increased pressures on the health system as COVID-19 cases surge.

It says province-wide ICU capacity is at nearly 100 per cent and approximately 200 more beds for COVID patients than currently exist may be needed in the coming weeks.

The SHA said, in part, while recent caseloads had been managed through existing capacity and adaptations to services, high sustained caseloads in the last few weeks will lead to increased hospitalizations and ICU admissions in the days ahead.

In a media release Thursday detailing how it was continuing to escalate its response to the pandemic, SHA listed examples of impact of current cases and the scale of their surge plan, which include:

• With the five-fold growth in COVID cases in ICUs in the last 30 days, province-wide ICU capacity is at nearly 100 per cent, with pressure points in Saskatoon leaving only three available ICU beds in Saskatoon as of November 26.
• Surging to the forecasted peak will require the SHA to create approximately 200 more beds for COVID patients than currently exist in all the hospitals outside of Saskatoon and Regina combined.
• More than doubling of active contacts in the last month. Current surge plans call for the SHA to add staffing to enable effective contact tracing to 450 cases per day and possibly more. Calculating based on latest data on average number of contacts, 450 cases per day would create 72,000 hours of work for contact tracers over a two-week time span, or an average of more than 5,000 hours per day.

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“Scaling up on this level is a significant challenge, so we need the public’s help to ensure we do not face the exponential growth in cases going forward that would strain our ability to scale up on the timelines required,” SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said. “As an example, surging our ICU capacity by 449 per cent means adding more ICU beds than there are in all four of Canada’s Atlantic provinces combined, all on an expedited timeline while operating under the extreme duress of the pandemic, illustrating the scope of our task if we do not get help from the public.”

For the complete media release click here.

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow