Doctors warn Manitobans not to let pandemic guard down

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This article was published 01/03/2022 (1421 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Doctors are urging caution as the province lifts restrictions, estimating more than half of Manitobans could be at higher risk of developing a serious COVID-19 infection.

Dr. Kristjan Thompson, president of Doctors Manitoba, said the pandemic is not over just because public-health restrictions have been lifted.

“I don’t want Manitobans to think that we’re out of the woods,” he said Tuesday. “COVID-19… it’s a virus. It doesn’t care about government policies, it doesn’t care about orders. It is a virus that is deadly, it will continue to infect. It will continue to mutate and evolve.”

The organization, which represents more than 4,000 physicians in the province, set up a website (newcovidnormal.ca) so Manitobans can assess their own risk.

The group advises people to gather gradually, in fresh air or well-ventilated spaces, on top of getting vaccinated and boosted.

An advisory group of physicians used health data to estimate that more than half of Manitobans have a risk factor that gives them a higher chance of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19. Risk factors include underlying medical conditions, disabilities, obesity, smoking, age, and being Black, Indigenous or a person of colour. Vaccination reduces the risk.

Thompson, an ER physician at St. Boniface Hospital, didn’t weigh in on what he described as “government policy decisions” that led to Manitoba following other provinces’ lead to lift all restrictions.

Vaccine requirements have been lifted as of today, March 1, and indoor mask mandates will be lifted March 15. But he said medical and public-health advice remains the same, regardless of the orders in place. He said Doctors Manitoba still recommends people wear masks to reduce risk and it wants everyone to get vaccinated, including health-care workers. He said 99 per cent of physicians have been vaccinated.

“I think we’re concerned that people are getting the wrong message. I’m hearing from many patients and many folks and Manitobans who are saying they believe the pandemic’s over just because these protections are being lifted. But the end of restrictions and protections does not mean the end of the pandemic,” Thompson said.

The provincial government released data that shows declining hospitalization and intensive-care admission rates as part of its announcement about lifting restrictions. Those indicators may be on the decline, but hospital capacity isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels yet.

Thompson said hospitals are still operating over capacity and patient wait times are still high. As of last week, patients were waiting 11 hours in the emergency room to see a doctor, and he said ER patients who need to be admitted to hospital are still waiting many hours or even days for a hospital bed.

“Our hospitals are still stretched and are still over-capacity. So, I think it behooves us to tread carefully and softly so that we can get on top of these numbers, address this surge in volume, and get back to pre-pandemic numbers,” Thompson said.

“Once the dust settles, I think we do need to look at our health-care system as a whole and understand why this happened and why our system is always filled to the brim.”

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com