The outbreak at the Moncton Hospital will continue to grow in numbers for several days as incubating cases appear, says infectious disease specialist Dr. Gordon Dow.
Another unit at the hospital is now experiencing an outbreak, with another being tested today. As of Wednesday afternoon, 20 patients and 4 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 in connection with unit outbreaks.
Four out of 16 hospital units are currently experiencing outbreaks:
- Unit 3600, Family medicine and palliative care unit (declared Nov 24)
- (Unit 3600).
- Unit 4400, Rehabilitation unit (declared Nov 23)
- Unit 5100, Family practice and geriatric unit (declared Nov 23)
- Unit 4600, Stroke and family medicine unit (declared Nov 22)
Three of the outbreaks declared Monday and Tuesday are linked, but the fourth is not, says Horizon.
At a news conference Wednesday, Moncton and Sackville hospital director Christa Wheeler-Thorne said she was concerned, and expected to have more cases identified after mass testing.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Gordon Dow says the cases are Delta variant, which has a shorter incubation period of about 5 days. That means that new cases could continue to appear for about five days, even after units have been locked down.
Dow said the infections at the Moncton hospital are a sign of the high rate of transmission in the surrounding community.
“The single biggest thing that predicts whether your hospital is going to get COVID is how much COVID is in your community,” said Down. “You can think of our hospitals a bit like the canary in a coal mine. If there’s a lot of COVID in your community, your risk of an institutional outbreak is high.”
Wheeler-Thorne said the outbreak at the Moncton hospital is not expected to affect operations at the Sackville Memorial hospital. “We have asked actually for staff at the Moncton hospital to help staffing at the Sackville Memorial Hospital because staffing is quite precarious there as well,” said Wheeler-Thorne. “If there’s capacity for Sackville to help with the Moncton hospital, we would certainly reach out and welcome them. We try really hard to not move staff between outbreak units and other units.”
Horizon says that surgeries, labour and birth services, ambulatory care and professional services will continue at the Moncton Hospital, and there will be public notification of any temporary service closures or interruptions.
And the health authority reiterated its longstanding request for people to go to the Moncton emergency room only with an emergency.
