‘We’re in really bad shape’: Saskatchewan doctor on ICU numbers

Some COVID-19 ICU patients are getting moved to Ontario to ease the impact on the health-care system, but an infectious disease doctor at Regina’s General Hospital says it isn’t making things any easier.

“We’re in really bad shape. When you’re flying people thousands of kilometres out of the province, it’s just a bad thing and a bad place to be,” Dr. Alex Wong said on Wednesday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

Despite cases trending down and hospital transfers taking place, Wong believes the situation in Saskatchewan hospitals will remain dire.

As of Wednesday, there were 82 people with COVID in Saskatchewan ICUs.

“The stress point here is the ICU; we’re not seeing an end in sight at this point,” he said. “It’s getting progressively worse and worse, and there doesn’t appear to be a peak as of yet.

“Whether it’s tightening vaccine mandates, whether that’s securing our vaccine certificates, whether that’s indoor gathering restrictions (or) some combination of all of those things, I think those things are really important to help us try to bring our curve down more quickly and to reduce deaths and suffering.”

As of Wednesday, Saskatchewan had recorded at least one COVID-related death in 45 consecutive days.

The number of active cases has been going down, but the province continues to have the highest active case rate in all of Canada.

“Our test positivity rates are still extremely high, like well over 10 per cent, which would suggest that our community transmission rates are still very, very high,” Wong said. “Unfortunately, I think testing behaviours have probably changed quite significantly, just because we’ve eliminated asymptomatic testing with PCR.

“The fact that our test positivity rates are still as high as they are would suggest that we’re not really moving in the right direction right now in terms of the overall balance of community transmission.”

Wastewater data from Saskatoon, Prince Albert and North Battleford indicate there could be another significant jump in cases in those regions.

Wong says he is worried about the fragility of the provincial health system, adding it wouldn’t take much for hospitals to tip over the edge.

“We’re very, very close to a situation where if we have some kind of disaster situation, something similar to what happened (with the Broncos bus crash) in Humboldt or even something half the size, our system isn’t going to be able to absorb that kind of capacity,” he said.

“Everybody just is going around acting as if everything is normal but the hospitals are just just a whole different place. I don’t really know what else to say other than to say that these are extraordinary times. It is so bad.”