Record-setting trend in COVID-19 ICU admissions continues with 109 Manitobans now in critical care

Manitoba markeda third consecutive day of record intensive care admissions on Tuesday, with more than 100 seriously ill COVID-19 patients now spread out in Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

There are109 ManitobaCOVID-19 patientsin intensive care units, up two from the record set on Monday. That includes 72 in Manitoba,36 transferred to hospitalsin Ontario and one sent toSaskatchewan, an online Shared Health update said.

Premier Brian Pallister thanked Ontario PremierDoug Ford and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe for creating much-needed space for critically ill Manitobans.

"We haddoubled the capacity in our province,a significant increase, but it's not proving to be enough.... We very much appreciate that help," he said at a press conference on Tuesday marking the end of the legislative session.

The normalpre-pandemicbaseline capacity for intensive care in Manitoba was 72 patients, according to Shared Health.

Seven COVID patients were admitted tolocal ICUs in a 24-hour period ending at noon on Monday, continuing an unprecedented trend that has seen admission numbers well above normal, Shared Health says.

Three COVID-19 patients were transported to Ontario on Monday for ongoing care, while two were sent back to Manitoba from Ontario, according to Shared Health.

Fifteen of Manitoba's current ICUpatientsare under the age of 40.

ICU patients from Winkler and Morden

Many of the recent admissions are patients from the Winkler and Morden area,saysan anesthetist and special care unit physician at the area's hospital.

Last weekend was overwhelming at the Boundary Trails Health Centre, which is between the two southern Manitoba cities, says Dr.Ganesan Abbu.

"[Shared Health] said this was the busiest weekend for Winnipeg ICUs or Manitoba ICUs, and we accounted for about 40 per cent of the transfers into Brandon and Winnipeg," he said. "It was significant."

Abbu says with a 16-hour span, staff at Boundary Trails transferredfour intubated patients to Winnipeg, about 100 kilometres to the northeast, or Brandon, about 150 kilometres to the northwest.

He says they had to hold on to one ventilated patient for seven hours because there were no ICU beds available.That patient wasonly accepted after another ICU patient was flown out of province, Abbu says.

Winkler has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Manitoba, at just under 25 per cent, according to the province's vaccination data dashboard. The rate in the surrounding Stanley district is about 13 per cent.

The province isalso reporting 232 new cases of COVID-19 and three deaths from the illness on Tuesday, two of which are linked to the highly transmissibleB117 coronavirus variant, a provincialnews release said.

Of the new COVID-19 cases,the majority are in the Winnipeg health region, which posted 168 new infections. There are also 36 new cases in the Southern Health region, 13 in the Northern Health Region, 10 in the Interlake-Eastern health region and five in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

There have now been51,316COVID-19 cases identified in Manitoba since the start of the pandemic, of which 4,333 are considered active.

All three deaths were in the Winnipeg area, including a woman in her 50s, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 80s.

That brings the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the province to 1,056.

Pallister appreciative of 'dedicated people'

A total of 305 Manitobans are hospitalized withCOVID-19, down by three from the day before.

WhenManitoba's premieraddressed the public last week, he was critical of people who weren't getting tested for COVID-19 and those who hadn't been vaccinated.

On Tuesday, he focused instead oncomplimenting those doing the right thing.

"I'm especially appreciative of all the dedicated people out there in our province that have followed the health orders, that are going out and gettingvaccinated, that are doing the right things to get us through this thing," he said.

WATCH | Pallister on people who are 'doing the right things':

Pallister thanks Manitobans doing the right thing

3 years ago

Duration 1:28

Premier Brian Pallister changed his tune and instead of criticizing those who are breaking public health rules, expressed appreciation for those who are following them.

The province also reported 598 newly identified cases of more contagious coronavirus variants, Manitoba'sonline variant dashboardsays. There are 2,594 active cases across the province involving variants of concern.

On Monday, 2,396 COVID-19 tests were done in Manitoba.

Hospital outbreaks declared

The province announced a number of COVID-19 outbreaks in hospital units on Tuesday.

In Winnipeg, there are outbreaks in the GD4 unit at Health Sciences Centre and in Unit 3 South at Grace Hospital. In Dauphin, the surgery unit of the health centre also has an outbreak.

The province also declared an outbreak at Beacon Hill Personal Care Home in Winnipeg.

There were a number of potential COVID-19 exposures on board various Winnipeg Transit routes from late in May. A full list of those exposures can be found on the province's website.

Vaccine eligibility expands

The province announced that more people are eligible to book their second dose of aCOVID-19 vaccine asofTuesday.

Those who received their first doseon or before April 13 can now book their second-dose appointment.

You canbook appointments on the province's websiteor bycalling 1-844-626-8222.

More than 11,000 doses of vaccine were scheduled to be given Tuesday, according to the province's online vaccine dashboard, and 62 per cent of people 12 and up have received at least one dose.

The latest update comes after theprovince reported303 new COVID-19 cases and one death on Monday. However, officials said due to technical issues, Monday's case total wasan undercount.