Interior Health says the COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Inland Hospital is now contained to just one unit – 6 North, the hospital’s designated COVID unit.
In a statement that came out at 5:31 p.m. today, the health authority says after two weeks of containment measures there has been ‘positive progress’ in managing the outbreak on surgical unit 6 South where it was first declared on Jan. 22.
“After appropriate cleaning, it is safe to resume regular operations on that unit,” said the statement.
There were two more cases announced today taking the total to 94 – 62 staff and 32 patients – with 53 cases of those cases still active. There is still the one death connected, an elderly patient.
Interior Health says staffing remains stable throughout RIH and day surgeries are continuing. Earlier this week, IH revealed that some surgeries at Royal Inland Hospital that required an overnight stay had been postponed.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Interior Health is conducting surveillance testing of staff throughout the hospital,” added the statement. “This is not a sign of COVID-19 spread, but rather a proactive measure to catch any cases early that could be linked to the outbreak.”
IH interim vice president of pandemic response, Karen Bloemink, was asked yesterday about reports that intensive care patients with COVID-19 in Kamloops were being transferred to Kelowna.
Bloemink did not confirm or deny those allegations.
“What I would say is at Royal Inland, and we would be doing this anywhere where we had increased activity, we are paying very close attention to the occupancy within the hospital. And that does include the intensive care unit, and where we have challenges related to occupancy,” she said. “So [if] the hospital is becoming quite full, or our critical care unit is becoming full, then we will be working with the other hospitals within the region to provide some relief.”
“And this is a common approach that we use with our network of patients anytime. And it provides us with a good opportunity now, as we’re managing COVID-19 activity that we do have in the area that Royal Inland Hospital supports.”
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 outbreak at Westsyde Care Residences remains at 21 cases. It includes 11 staff and 10 residents, and all of those cases are active.
For a third-straight day, there were no new cases at the Brocklehurst Gemstone Care Centre. The outbreak there remains at 25 cases, including 17 residents and eight staff. Three of those cases remain active and two residents have died of COVID-19.
Across Interior Health, there were 56 cases and three COVID-19 deaths reported today. Active cases in Interior Health are at 975, with 53 people are in hospital, 19 of whom are in intensive care units.
– With files from Colton Davies
