Health
B.C. to reactivate its COVID emergency operations centres to prepare for more illness
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The British Columbia government will reopen 20 hospital emergency operation centres set up for COVID-19 to deal with an expected surge in flu, respiratory illness and COVID cases.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said Friday they’ve been coping with an unprecedented increase in demand in the health-care system.
He said reactivating the centres starting Monday will ensure people have continued access to hospital care and will allow for a co-ordinated response during periods of additional pressures on hospitals.
There were 10,226 patients in B.C.’s hospitals on Friday, a six per cent jump from 9,637 on New Year’s Eve.
Dix said the centres will help ensure there is space for those needing it in the coming weeks.
“It’s not a question of it going higher,” Dix said, referring to the number of people in hospital. “We need to manage the situation that we have and then create space, potentially, and ensure that we have space for people who need care.”
B.C. traditionally experiences an increase in hospitalizations in January as illnesses spread during the holiday period and surgeries resume in the new year.
Dix said the centres will be in place for at least six weeks and leadership teams will review hospital bed availability and identify solutions to ease emergency department congestion.
Emergency operation centres were part of the provincial response to the pandemic, as well as during wildfire and extreme weather events, including the recent extreme cold weather and snowstorms.
Staff at the centres will help patients who are ready to be discharged in an attempt to reduce overall hospital occupancy and ensure emergency departments have patient care beds available.
Dix said the three years of the pandemic have put health-care workers through the grinder.
“It has been unrelenting,” he said.
“People have been working like this for years and they need our support and they’ll get it, but it’s very, very challenging for them.”
Hospitals where emergency operation centres will be established are Abbotsford Regional, Royal Columbian, Surrey Memorial, East Kootenay Regional, Kelowna General, Kootenay Boundary Regional, Penticton Regional, Royal Inland, Vernon Jubilee, Fort St. John & Peace Villa, Mills Memorial, University Hospital of Northern BC, BC Children’s, Lions Gate, Richmond, St. Paul’s, Vancouver General, Nanaimo Regional General, Royal Jubilee and Victoria General.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2023.
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Alberta Health Services (AHS) has confirmed a case of measles in Edmonton, and is advising the public that the individual was out in public while infectious.
Measles is an extremely contagious disease that is spread easily through the air, and can only be prevented through immunization.
AHS says individuals who were in the following locations during the specified dates and times, may have been exposed to measles.
- April 16
- Edmonton International Airport, international arrivals and baggage claim area — between 3:20 p.m. and 6 p.m.
- April 20
- Stollery Children’s Hospital Emergency Department — between 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- April 22
- 66th Medical Clinic (13635 66 St NW Edmonton) — between 12:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Pharmacy 66 (13637 66 St NW Edmonton) — between 12:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- April 23
- Stollery Children’s Hospital Emergency Department — between 4:40 a.m. to 9:33 a.m.
AHS says anyone who attended those locations during those times is at risk of developing measles if they’ve not had two documented doses of measles-containing vaccine.
Those who have not had two doses, who are pregnant, under one year of age, or have a weakened immune system are at greatest risk of getting measles and should contact Health Link at 1-877-720-0707.
Symptoms
Symptoms of measles include a fever of 38.3° C or higher, cough, runny nose, and/or red eyes, a red blotchy rash that appears three to seven days after fever starts, beginning behind the ears and on the face and spreading down the body and then to the arms and legs.
If you have any of these symptoms stay home and call Health Link.
In Alberta, measles vaccine is offered, free of charge, through Alberta’s publicly funded immunization program. Children in Alberta typically receive their first dose of measles vaccine at 12 months of age, and their second dose at 18 months of age.
Health
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Infected cows were already prohibited from being transported out of state, but that was based on the physical characteristics of the milk, which looks curdled when a cow is infected, or a cow has decreased lactation or low appetite, both symptoms of infection.
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