Outbreak linked to unvaccinated patient

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This article was published 12/11/2021 (1571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A patient of Health Sciences Centre has died from COVID-19 and another remains in intensive care after catching the virus in a major hospital outbreak that officials believe began with a single unvaccinated patient.

As of Wednesday, 14 patients and eight staff connected to surgical unit GD2 at HSC had tested positive for COVID-19 after public health declared the outbreak on Nov. 4.

Shared Health, the provincial health services organization that oversees operations of Manitoba’s largest hospital, said the outbreak “underscores the adverse impact that one patient who chooses to be unvaccinated can have on the health-care system.”

A spokesperson for Shared Health said it’s believed COVID-19 made its way onto the ward when an unvaccinated surgical patient tested positive as part of routine screening.

Over seven days, 13 fully vaccinated patients and eight staff members would test positive, with two patients requiring intensive care; one died and another has since been moved out of the ICU.

Meanwhile, a connected outbreak on medical unit GD4, declared Monday, has so far infected one staff member and three patients, one of whom was admitted to intensive care. All were fully vaccinated, Shared Health said.

Seven surgeries had to be postponed as a result, 10 beds remain closed on a surgical unit, and patients who got sick will now stay “far longer than they would have been if not for acquiring the virus,” a spokesperson for Shared Health told the Free Press.

Dr. Pamela Orr, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases expert at the University of Manitoba, said it’s disheartening to see the virus spread in health-care settings among both unvaccinated and vaccinated people.

“One event can paralyze an entire wing of a hospital. That’s the lesson,” Orr said in an interview with the Free Press on Thursday. “We knew that in the previous waves, but we thought we’d be through with that now, and we’re not.”

Orr, who is also an attending physician at the hospital, said it may be time for a discussion on enhanced infection prevention and control measures to protect patients, staff and an acute-care system already struggling to provide necessary and timely care to Manitobans.

“Vaccines work and we would see a worse situation if both our patients, visitors and health-care workers were not vaccinated,” Orr said. “But clearly, current use of (personal protective equipment) is not perfect in preventing a super-spreader event.”

“It would be useful to hear more from infection control experts about whether we should be moving to universal use of N95 masks, especially in light of aerosol transmission of delta (variant), which is dominant in Manitoba.”

Orr said the outbreak reveals the fragility of the hospital system as it tries to catch up with tens of thousands of delayed surgeries, procedures and diagnostic tests while seeing increased COVID-19 patient volumes.

“We are currently overwhelmed and the health of every Manitoban is at risk,” Orr said. “And it appears like our department of health and government services have not learned from the previous waves where they delayed so long that the hospital system collapsed under the load.”

The number of outbreaks, including in healthcare settings, is growing and is a symptom of high levels of COVID-19 in the community, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Wednesday.

Currently, COVID-19 is known to be spreading in six health care facilities, including four hospitals and two personal care homes.

Two outbreaks are located in the Southern Health-Sante Sud region, which accounts for about 30 per cent of the province’s active COVID-19 cases, but 15 per cent of the population.

At Third Crossing Manor personal care home in Gladstone, about 150 kilometres west of Winnipeg, 23 staff and four residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since an outbreak was declared on Monday.

It’s expected that the top doctor will reveal plans, which will likely include tightened public health measures, to address the concerning pandemic trajectory before the end of the week.

Roussin said Wednesday, that based on disease modelling, it’s estimated within two or three weeks, COVID-19 hospitalizations would add significant strain to the healthcare system if spread continues “unabated.”

Public health should improve ventilation in schools as one proven measure to curb transmission of the virus, Orr said, and embrace rapid testing in places with high infection rates, and in settings with obvious, and ongoing transmission.

Currently, the asymptomatic rapid testing program for some unvaccinated public sector workers is not an initiative of Manitoba public health.

Meanwhile, mandatory paid sick leave needs to be available to Manitobans to mitigate spread of COVID-19, Orr said.

The Manitoba government’s pandemic sick leave program, which provided employers up to $600 for employee wages to cover up to five days of COVID-19 related sick leave, concluded Oct. 23.

“This mandatory paid sick leave is a no-brainer, and if you don’t do it because it’s the fair, just thing to do, then do it because it actually will decrease the number of cases in the pandemic,” Orr said. “It will pay for itself.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca