Red Cross nurses on the way to Manitoba ICUs

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This article was published 19/12/2021 (1460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

UP to eight Red Cross nurses are bound for Manitoba ICU wards Monday, a week after the province requested 30 federal nurses to help alleviate strain caused by COVID-19.

“The fight against COVID-19 is not over,” a spokeswoman for Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair wrote to the Free Press on Saturday afternoon.

She said up to eight nurses will head to intensive care, emergency rooms and acute care ward, beginning Dec. 20 until Jan. 17, 2022, “with the possibility of extension.”

The number of nurses reflects Ottawa’s supply and needs that both governments outlined in negotiations since Manitoba made its request last weekend.

“As we have said since the beginning, we will always be there to support Canadians,” the spokeswoman wrote.

Spokespersons for the Red Cross and the provincial health department did not return requests for comment Saturday afternoon.

Last weekend, the province urgently requested 15 to 30 ICU nurses from the federal government. The request was made “due to the continued pressure of the fourth wave and continuing pressures in our major acute care facilities and ICUs,” Health Minister Audrey Gordon said in a statement at the time.

The province had asked the feds to send the critical-care nurses immediately for up to six weeks.

“Assistance from the federal government would increase ICU capacity to address continued pressure in major acute care facilities due to the effects of COVID-19 while allowing our surgical slates to remain open,” read the statement issued last week on behalf of Gordon and Ron Schuler, the minister responsible for the Emergency Measures Organization.

Premier Heather Stefanson has not committed to asking for military help in addition to the request for nurses.

Front-line doctors have warned Manitoba ICUs are already full.

As of Friday morning, there were 33 COVID-19 patients in ICU, and 24 of them had active infections of the virus.

Although unvaccinated Manitobans make up only a small portion of the population, they account for 88 per cent of patients in the ICU, according to provincial data last updated Friday.

— staff