WINNIPEG -- The number of COVID-19 deaths doubled in Manitoba in less than two weeks, according to Shared Health’s chief nursing officer.
“It took 248 days for Manitoba to record 100 COVID deaths, and it took only 13 days for us to double that amount,” said Lanette Siragusa at the province’s daily COVID-19 briefing on Friday.
“We’re now up to 208 deaths, 208 families that are in mourning, 208 families that have been unable to properly grieve for their loved ones, to gather together and support each other as they remember the person they lost.”
Siragusa noted that though COVID-19 is robbing everyone of pieces of their normal lives, it also robbing families of their loved ones, and Manitobans must do something about it.
“Each of these individuals who we’ve lost is so much more than a number,” she said.
“They were loved, they are missed and they won’t be forgotten.”
BABY CONTRACTED COVID-19
As of Friday, 281 are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Manitoba.
Siragusa said that though it is undeniable the elderly population has been hit the hardest by the disease, there are also people in their 20s and 30s in the hospital, as well as children.
“We even have a baby right now with COVID-19,” she said.
The chief nursing officer noted that since she returned to the daily briefings about a month ago, the number of hospitalizations has increased by 338 per cent.
“100 ICU beds are currently open across the system, and as a reminder, the number of these beds will always fluctuate based on the need,” Siragusa said.
“Ninety of those beds were in use as of midnight.”
Siragusa said that 43 of all ICU patients in the province have COVID-19, as well as 33 of the 66 who are ventilated. In the past 25 days, 872 non-elective and elective surgeries have been postponed.
“We are all tired of this virus,” she said.
“We are all tired of the limitations that it places on our social lives. We all know businesses that are suffering. We all know people whose employment has been impacted by the measures that are in place to manage the spread of the virus. But most of all we are tired of reporting the cruelest impacts of this virus.”
