COVID-19: Alberta ICU capacity about 40% over normal, Kenney says | FULL

Alberta premier Jason Kenney and health officials explained how much pressure the health-care system is under during a COVID-19 update on Monday.

According to the premier, ICU capacity in Alberta is about 40 per cent over normal capacity.

“Normally, our health-care system is set up to care for about 170 people in ICU,” Kenney said. “We are about over 40 per cent above our normal maximum capacity, and our pre-COVID record high for ICU admissions.”

The number of cases remains high across the province, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.

“Alberta's average positivity rate for the last seven days is 10.7 per cent,” Hinshaw said. “That is near the highest point it has ever been in this pandemic and rates in every zone have been increasing over the past several months.”

“This is not an urban-versus-rural issue. It is clear that COVID-19 is spreading, and having an impact everywhere in our province.”

The impact on the health-care system – and the staffing pressures - is a huge concern for the province and Alberta Health Services (AHS).

“Our health-care system is under significant stress, more than at any point during the pandemic,” AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said. “In fact, we're currently experiencing several record highs across the health-care system.”

“We also now have the highest number of patients on ventilators, at 222, of which more than half are COVID-19 patients,” the AHS CEO said.

Yiu said AHS is “carefully monitoring demand” for ICU beds, and has the capacity to increase the total to 425 through repurposing other areas in hospitals for unstaffed beds.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/7868431/alberta-covid-19-update-monday-may-17-2021/

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