THUNDER BAY – With three confirmed COVID-19 cases currently being treated at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, the city hopes to have a special unit to deal with the virus up and running within three to five days.
Dr. Stewart Kennedy, who is heading the hospital’s COVID-19 response team, on Wednesday said staff is working feverishly to get the 36-patient unit ready to go.
The hospital also has 18 presumptive cases being treated on site, though none of them have yet to return a positive test.
“We’ve had discussions with all the staff involved – the nursing staff, the medical staff, the allied health professionals – to actually get prepared for the next movement of Phase 2 of our containment plan,” Kennedy said.
The unit will be located inside the hospital, which has dropped below 60 per cent capacity as measure are taken to keep only those who need to be hospitalized in a bed.
“The unit is totally empty right now and the staff are getting educated about the proper wearing of (personal protective equipment) and proper education on any type of significant event, through simulation,” Kennedy said.
“So they’re being trained, being educated and the unit is actually being redressed, so it’s more of a sterile environment at this point.”
Part of the process also involves assuring staff who are concerned about facing the pandemic head on.
“There’s anxiety among our staff to be dealing totally with COVID-19,” Kennedy said.
“But all the evidence from Italy, Spain, from the United States (shows) it’s important to segregate that population. We have one dedicated group of physicians as well as nursing staff and allied health professionals, to take care of those COVID-19 patients, so they’re getting the top care at the time required and also if there’s been a change to their medical status, that there’s quick access to our intensive care unit.”
Kennedy said they’re working on ways to do more testing for COVID-19 at the hospital, noting it will ramp up when localized test analysis is available. Unfortunately, he said, while much of the equipment is in place, the re-agents aren’t in ready supply, which is causing much of the delay.
It’s a problem, he acknowledged, saying that at present, it still takes up to three days to get results back, which can affect staffing levels should a health-care professional be in contact with a COVID-19 case and their PPE fails.
Kennedy said new directives being issued by the province mean health-care workers will get a measure of priority when it comes to test results.
The new directives will also impact testing levels on the general public.
“Now travel is still a criteria, but not the major criteria. Symptoms are the major criteria, meaning if you have two or more symptoms of fever, chest pain, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal or nausea, we have a whole list now that if you have any of those symptoms, you will get tested,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also dispelled a rumour floating around Thunder Bay that the city had had its first COVID-19 related death.
Not true, Kennedy said.
An unfortunate punctuation error in a published obituary led many to believe a recent death was due to COVID-19.
