Saskatchewan still seeing strain on hospitals due to COVID

Saskatchewan’s battle with COVID-19 may have crested, but the virus is still at high levels and it’s causing ongoing stresses in health care.

During a physicians’ town hall Thursday evening, medical health officer Dr. Johnmark Opondo said the province has hit a plateau or could even be on the downslope, but the virus is stabilizing at a very high level.

Opondo said the province will continue to see COVID for the foreseeable future.

“The belief is this is really going to be the new reality that if COVID is with us, we are going to continue to experience COVID illness, which will continue to impact our hospital capacity for a while into the future,” said Opondo.

The plateau Saskatchewan has hit is high, according to Opondo, and it’s not a good thing.

“It comes at a great cost for us as a system because it needs our staff to continue operating at this higher level and really, really strains our capacity. It takes its tolls just trying to keep on responding at this high rate,” explained Opondo.

Opondo said acute care services are always running high in most areas, and COVID has come in and set the bar much higher.

Gayle Riendeau, a registered nurse and interim defensive strategy co-chief, was also part of the presentation. She said provincial acute care occupancy rates have slightly decreased, but it’s still at 91 per cent for the whole province.

Individually, Saskatoon is at 133 per cent of its acute care hospital capacity.

“They are definitely the most stressed and stretched at this point,” said Riendeau.

Regina’s hospitals are at 107 per cent acute care capacity. Integrated northern health and integrated rural health are a bit better at 80 per cent and 67 per cent capacity, respectively.

However, Riendeau said there are some hot spots like Swift Current and Moose Jaw that are at a higher occupancy.

The offensive side of the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s response is mostly starting to think about the COVID end game now, said Opondo. It’s not the end yet, he said, but SHA officials are planning for it, including work on primary care, hospitals, and continuing care and long-term care.

COVID-19 deaths

February was the third-deadliest month in the pandemic thus far and the first two weeks of March saw 41 deaths related to COVID.

Opondo said in the last two weeks, Saskatchewan’s mortality rate moved from 2.3 to 4.7 per 100,000 — which he said is higher than the other provinces. He said the peak of deaths from Omicron was similar to what was seen with Delta, which Opondo said was a reportedly more severe strain.

Opondo also explained deaths in the integrated northern health district have been 2.5 times higher than the area with the lowest death rate, Saskatoon.

“These disparities are related to a variety of factors such as the degree of community spread, vulnerability of the individuals with COVID and other issues which really deserve us looking more into, particularly if they’re prevention opportunities,” said Opondo.

Through the pandemic, 1,157 people have died related to COVID-19 in Saskatchewan.