Some ventilation upgrades at B.C. hospitals as health minister addresses COVID-19 outbreaks
The minister of health and his staff have provided some new information on B.C.'s response to COVID-19 outbreaks in hospitals, but many of the details remain hazy, including how many hospitals saw improved ventilation as a result.
Since the start of the pandemic, at least 1,619 people likely caught COVID-19 in the province's hospitals, and at least 274 of them died. The provincial health officer insisted there are fewer outbreaks now due to vaccinations, but also improvements in ventilation systems.
There is growing discussion about the airborne nature of some COVID-19 infections, with Dr. Theresa Tam recently describing aerosol particles drifting like second-hand smoke. But while B.C. has invested in some ventilation upgrades for hospitals, officials say not all of them are due to the pandemic, and the health minister was reluctant to use the word “airborne” in discussing COVID-19 transmission Monday.
"There've been significant upgrades in ventilation (in hospitals) in all six health authorities throughout the province," said Adrian Dix. “The focus has been more in some of our older hospitals, for obvious reasons. The others are built to a higher standard of ventilation and so all of that work has been happening, much of it since the beginning of the pandemic but even before then."
The Ministry of Health provided CTV News with a summary of some of the ventilation measures, pointing out that Lions Gate Hospital, where 147 people got sick with COVID-19 and 18 died in three separate outbreaks, had $226,000 in ventilation upgrades to the ICU and COVID-19 wards, among other areas.
Richmond Hospital racked up $2.1 million in costs responding to COVID-19, which included "a number of interventions such as installation of hoarding, infection prevention and control practices (i.e., enhanced housekeeping), among others." About $397,000 of that was spent on HVAC and ventilation measures.
Island Health insisted its hospitals already have "100 per cent outdoor units that provide adequate ventilation," and while Northern Health, Interior Health and Providence Health Care improved or installed ventilation systems and negative pressure rooms, Fraser Health provided almost no information about what it did.
“Most Fraser Health acute sites meet the necessary standards, and the health authority has implemented temporary measures across acute care sites as needed,” wrote a ministry spokesperson, explaining 200 portable air purifiers were deployed across B.C.’s largest health authority.
But some of the hospitals in that area are older, and as Fraser Health fights to conceal reports about what led to outbreaks and what was done in response, the issue of how much airborne spread of the virus could’ve contributed is an open question. At Surrey Memorial Hospital alone, there have been 15 outbreaks, with 147 people likely catching the virus there and 18 of them dying.
CTV News has been trying to speak with health authority doctors responsible for overseeing outbreak response in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health, but they have not been authorized to speak and the health minister addressed the issue of nosocomial (hospital) transmission in broad strokes instead.
“I give interviews seven days a week,” insisted Dix. “When you have hospitals that are treating people, including people with COVID-19, especially in the pre-vaccination period there was significant outbreaks in our hospitals."
Watch the entire interview with CTV News Vancouver's Penny Daflos and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.