A COVID-19 outbreak at Saanich Peninsula Hospital is more widespread than first thought, with more cases discovered Thursday in both staff and patients, says provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
As of Wednesday, one staff member and five patients had tested positive for COVID-19 at Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
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Island Health is expected to release an update today.
The outbreak is “still confined,” but additional testing is ongoing, said Henry. The hospital remains closed to admission, but the emergency department is still operating. Patients who need to be admitted will be taken to Victoria General Hospital.
Saanich Peninsula Hospital and West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni both reported outbreaks on Tuesday.
Units involved at Saanich Peninsula included acute-care and palliative care, but given the small size of the hospital, the entire acute-care facility is under outbreak status.
The health care worker who tested positive is self isolating, while two patients were discharged to recover at home, and three were transferred to Royal Jubilee Hospital, a COVID-19 designated hospital.
On Wednesday, Island Health said it hadn’t determined whether the infections occurred in the community or in hospital. The infected health care worker did not have contact with all of the patients who tested positive.
The outbreak at West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni on Wednesday was confined to the medical-surgical B-wing.
One staff member and one patient tested positive for COVID-19. The health care worker is isolating at home, while the patient was transferred to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, one of three COVID-19 designated sites.
In both outbreaks, Island Health says it has implemented precautions, including enhanced cleaning and contact tracing, infection control, testing and personal protective equipment.
On Thursday, Island Health recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19, out of a total of 694 new cases in the province: 114 in Vancouver Coastal, 465 in Fraser Health, 10 in Island Health, 82 in Interior Health, and 23 in Northern Health.
There are now 9,103 active cases in the province, with 325 people in hospital, including 80 in intensive or critical care. The province also announced 12 new deaths on Thursday, for a total of 481 in the province to date.
Henry said Thursday that B.C. health officials are planning to begin vaccinations against the virus in the first week of January.
Henry expects the province will have two vaccines in January, February and March — one from Pfizer and the other from Moderna.
“Our planning construct is to be ready to start the first week of January and to hope to have everybody done by September of next year,” said Henry.
Initially, there will not be enough for everybody, she said. But vaccines from other manufacturers, if approved by Health Canada, are expected in the second quarter of 2021.
“So, we expect there’ll be a good lot of people who will be immunized by the summer, and through the fall next year, but by the end of the year, anybody who wants vaccine in B.C. and in Canada should have it available to them and should be immunized.”
Vancouver Coastal Health’s Dr. Ross Brown, heading the province’s vaccine program, and B.C. Centre of Disease Control experts have participated in a “table top” exercise with provincial and federal counterparts to walk through how to facilitate vaccine delivery and anticipate challenges or roadblocks, said Henry.
The vaccines will first be given to people who are most at risk from severe illness, and to health-care workers.
“We know that we will have limited amount at first, so we won’t be able to broadly achieve what we’ve been calling community immunity, or herd immunity, right off the bat, but that will come,” said Henry. “Our first priority will be to make sure that we’re protecting those who are most at risk. We know that this our seniors and elders in our communities, and long-term care homes in particular, and in hospitals, here in British Columbia.”
There are 56 active outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living homes — involving 958 residents and 559 staff — and eight in acute care.
Health orders ban social gatherings, require masks in public spaces and ask residents to stop all non-essential travel. There are also new restrictions on adult team sports and contact in sport for kids, on top of an existing ban on all indoor high-intensity fitness activities.
In the past few weeks, 10 to 15 per cent of new COVID-19 cases have been related to physical fitness and sport activities, said Henry.
Asked about delays in posting of new orders after they are announced, Henry said last-minute changes are sometimes needed in wording for legal reasons, and she asked people to be guided by the “intent of the orders.”
In B.C., 35,422 people have been infected with COVID-19 and 24,928 have recovered.
