Share

副总裁大流行计划& Chief MHO Joint Update: October 8, 2020

SENT TO ALL STAFF, MEDICAL STAFF, STUDENTS AND VOLUNTEERS ON BEHALF OF VICTORIA SCHMID, VP PANDEMIC PLANNING, AND DR. RICHARD STANWICK, VP POPULATION HEALTH & CHIEF MEDICAL HEALTH OFFICER

Over the past week, two new high-acuity units opened at NRGH and RJH – two COVID-cohorting sites in Island Health. These spaces are supporting our pandemic response by increasing capacityto provide specialized care and manage hospitalization surges due to influenza, COVID-19, and mass casualty events, while reducing pressure on critical areas like emergency departments.Congratulations to the dedicated teams who worked on this project – from inception to development.Read moreabout Island Health’s new high-acuity units.

oct-8.pngThis week we continue to focus on COVID-19 testing capacity and accessibility. Since moving to a full callback system on October 2nd – where everyone signs-up for a callback and no one waits on hold – our call centre team has been steadily gaining traction in returning calls and scheduling tests in a short time span. To ensure we can meet the province’s goal of 24-hours from call to test, we will need to increase our capacity at collection sites. This is where we are focusing our efforts now and in the coming weeks. A tremendous amount of work has happened to realize the successes we are seeing so far and we look forward to ongoing improvements and increased testing capacity in the near future.

Starting next Wednesday, we will be increasing our end of day updates to three times a week - Monday/Wednesday/Friday. If there are specific things you want to know more about, or you need answers to questions, please reach out topandemic@islandhealth.ca.

NEW PANDEMIC TEAM MEMBERS

岛上卫beplay全站App生大流行应对的进步,我们的small but mighty team is expanding to welcome a few new people to focus on some critical areas of work.

  • Christina Lumleyis a new project director who will provide leadership around pandemic related strategy and reporting, and she will oversee the development and implementation of various projects.
  • Katie Keleherhas joined us as a manager who will work with teams and work stream leaders in the areas of contact tracing, community COVID cohorting sites and COVID virtual monitoring. Read more about Katiehere.

We also want to acknowledge the support we are receiving fromVictoria Power, Executive Lead of Clinical Health Services, who is lending us her vast experience and project leadership skills to support work around testing capacityand access. We are thankful to have her expertise to draw on.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Why don't we have rapid testing for seniors going into care? Self-isolation is very hard on them – especially those with dementia.

Testing on asymptomatic people who have been exposed to the virus and will subsequently become symptomatic can produce false negatives. The best time to test someone is when they are displaying symptoms of COVID-19. Isolation is a critically important way to ensure COVID is not introduced into a Long-Term Care home. Equally important is the need for health-care workers to keep their personal bubbles small and maintain safe COVID practices at all times.

PROVINCIAL UPDATE

Provincial Update (new numbers today):

  • 110 people have newly-confirmed COVID-19 for a total of 10,066 people
  • 1 new death – 245 COVID-19 related deaths in B.C.
  • 1,394 people with active COVID-19 in B.C. – 76 in hospital – 17 in critical care/ICU

Island Health Update (Tuesday, Oct 6 – Thursday, Oct 8):

  • 2 people have newly-confirmed COVID-19 for a total of 223 people
  • 0 deaths – 6 COVID-19 related deaths in Island Health
  • 13 people with active COVID-19 in Island Health – 0 in hospital – 0 in critical care/ICU
  • Seebreakdown by region(South/Central/North) – updatedon Monday or as cases are reported

Read updates fromDr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer:

COVID-19 INTRANET PAGE UPDATES

Since our last update, the following resources have been added or updated on theCOVID-19Intranet page.

Changes

Testing

COVID-19 Testing (Collection) Sites and Assessment Clinicsis updated frequently; please check this document often.

External

Check out what isNew Todayon the BCCDC website

Stay informed: