WINNIPEG -- The Manitoba government has provided additional information on the hospitalization of COVID-19 patients.
During the daily media briefing Friday, Lanette Siragusa, the chief nursing officer with Shared Health, said the province is working to refine its data to give a more accurate picture of the cases and hospitalizations in Manitoba.
“We’ve broadened our scope of COVID hospitalization data to include individuals who are no longer considered infectious, but still are very much in need of inpatient services due to the impacts of the virus,” Siragusa said.
As of Friday morning, 388 people are hospitalized in Manitoba due to COVID-19. Of those patients, Siragusa said 298 are still considered infectious, and 90 patients are past the infectious stage, but still require care.
Of the 121 patients in the intensive care unit across the province, 40 are still considered to have active COVID-19 and are infectious, and 13 patients have passed the COVID-19 infectious stage, but remain in intensive care.
Of the 78 patients on ventilators, 48 have COVID-19. Siragusa said eight of the 13 patients in intensive care who passed the infectious stage remain on a ventilator.
Siragusa said the data also serves as a reminder to Manitobans that they need to reduce the daily case counts in the province to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
“We know this virus can - and has - impacted Manitobans of all ages, and what this data shows us is that a significant portion of people who are hospitalized with COVID have lengthy stays that outlast their infectious period,” she said. “High daily case counts result in a disproportionate number of long-term patients, which interrupts our normal patient flow in our hospital, and also contributes to significant stress in the health system that our staff are feeling - and others whose services have been decreased or delayed are also feeling.”
Siragusa added there are now 14 COVID-19 outbreaks at nine hospitals in Manitoba.
