The province announced on Sunday that three COVID-19 cases previously identified in the Prairie Mountain Health region have been linked to a unit on the second floor of the Brandon Regional Health Centre’s Assiniboine Centre.
As such, the site has initiated outbreak protocols on this floor to reduce the spread of infection to hospital patients and staff. This means that visitations will be restricted now that the floor is designated as threat-level red (critical) under the province’s new Pandemic Response system.
Sunday’s news release went on to claim that all this information has already been shared with close contacts of the infected, including family members and fellow staff.
However, Andrea Playter told the Sun that the BRHC’s communication with families of patients has been very poor in light of this news.
The Minnedosa resident said she is particularly concerned about the health of her 78-year-old father, who was administered to the hospital after suffering a stroke earlier this month.
“We can’t go in and see him. We’re told nothing and I’m really, really afraid that the next phone call we’re going to get is to tell us that … our dad contracted COVID and then died alone,” she said on Sunday afternoon. “We’re just sort of sitting in limbo, and he seems to be deteriorating physically.”
This revelation about the three cases at BRHC comes days after the province previously announced that COVID-19 cases have been linked to two personal care homes in Brandon: Hillcrest Place and Rideau Park. Both facilities have also been place under threat-level red.
Moving into this week, Michelle Gawronsky from the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said she will be keeping a close eye on the BRHC and other health-care facilities in the region to make sure that they are abiding by the current provincial health protocols.
“If it’s PPE or it’s a non-medical mask, the expectation is that the employer has them available, and the expectation from our members is that you will wear them, and that is how we are going to protect each other,” Gawronsky said on Sunday.
Otherwise, the province announced 90 more coronavirus cases over the weekend — 55 on Saturday and 35 on Sunday — bringing the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba up to 1,186.
Of these 90 cases, almost half came from the PMH region, with 31 having been announced on Saturday and 12 on Sunday.
Preliminary investigations suggest that eight of the cases announced on Sunday are close contacts of previously announced cases.
Right now, Manitoba is contending with 462 active cases and a five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate of 2.2 per cent.
Updated hospitalization and intensive care unit data was not made available on Sunday due to data system upgrades. The province expects this data will be available this afternoon.
As of Friday, five Manitobans were hospitalized due to the virus, with one individual being in intensive care. The province’s COVID-19 related death toll remains at 14.
An additional 1,542 laboratory tests were completed in Manitoba on Saturday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February to 134,920.
» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
