Alberta Health Services says it anticipates a field hospital at the University of Alberta’s Butterdome could open to COVID-19 patients by mid-January, if needed, as preparations get underway.
With the help of the Canadian Red Cross, the transformation of the athletic complex into a temporary field hospital is expected to begin next week and wrap up during the first week of January, AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in an email Monday.
The 100-bed facility would add to Edmonton’s hospital capacity, above current plans to extend capacity for COVID-19 patients to 2,250 beds and 425 intensive care spaces, he said.
“These care spaces will be kept in reserve, for use as needed,” Williamson said.
The beds could be used for patients recovering from COVID-19 who are deemed to be at low risk of transmitting the virus, Williamson said, but noted other patients could also be treated at the centre.
Alberta’s chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said last week the field hospital, dubbed an alternate care centre, is a precautionary measure.
But as the province recorded a record number of hospitalizations on Monday, Hinshaw warned that if Alberta does not bend the curve, “we may need to use those extra spaces.”
“If we can continue to work together to bend the curve, as we have been … then perhaps we may not need those beds at all. But of course, it’s also prudent that they’re there in backup just in case they’re needed, but it really is up to all of us,” she said Monday, as daily new case totals continued a recent downward trend.
On Monday, hospitals in the Edmonton health zone were treating 456 people with COVID-19, over half of the provincial total of 795. In the Edmonton area, 87 people were admitted to intensive care units.
As COVID-19 demands stretch capacity at the city’s hospitals, Hinshaw announced this month that up to60 per cent of non-urgent surgeries would be postponed to ensure space for critically ill patients.
AHS did not immediately respond on Monday afternoon to questions about plans to staff the field hospital. A spokesperson for Health Minister Tyler Shandro directed questions to AHS.
The latest update comes after CBC News reported earlier this month that the Alberta government had drafted internal plans to establish two or more Alberta field hospitals, should brick-and-mortar hospitals become overwhelmed.
‘Show Albertans what the plan is’
The NDP acting opposition health critic MLA Heather Sweet denounced what she called the government’s opaque plans for the Butterdome field hospital.
“We still don’t know what this government knows around what our infection rates are going to look like past Christmas, so we would like to see this government show Albertans what the plan is,” she said.
“I think the fact that the Red Cross is being asked to set up these field hospitals in a matter of weeks … speaks to an urgency that this government is aware of.”
A Red Cross volunteer adjusts an opening in a tent at a mobile hospital at the Jacques Lemaire arena in the Montreal suburb of LaSalle in April. The charity is now working with the Alberta government to prepare a temporary hospital at a university athletic complex in Edmonton (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
In Calgary, a temporary building constructed in the summer at Peter Lougheed hospital is being used as an extension of the emergency department.
The Butterdome was previously used as a COVID-19 assessment centre in the spring.
“The plan is part of our ongoing, proactive pandemic response planning and is one of several initiatives that will ensure our healthcare system can meet increased demand caused by COVID-19,” Williamson said.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
