The increase in COVID-19 patients admitted to a Manitoba hospital last week was lower than the previous week, suggesting that this latest wave of pandemics may have peaked. The latest epidemiological report from the Manitoba Public Health says that 188 patients with COVID were admitted to the hospital during the week of April 17-23. That’s four patients since the week ended April 16, when he was 184. The report also states that 12 patients with COVID were admitted to the intensive care unit last week, a decrease of 10 admissions to the ICU from the week ended April 16, when there were 22. This is a remarkable improvement from the previous trend. There were 26 more hospital admissions and three more ICU admissions in the week ending April 16 than in the week ending April 9 (when there were 158 and 19). The county’s chief public health official says the slowdown in hospital admissions, combined with static sewage indicators for the presence of the coronavirus in Winnipeg, suggest the current pandemic wave may be flattening. “If we look at our sewage, if we look at some of these inputs, we will see what an early plateau might be,” he said. “It is difficult to predict what will happen here, but entering the hopefully better weather soon, in the spring, seeing some of these indicators of a plateau brings some optimism.” The number of people dying from COVID-19 has not yet decreased. Thirteen Manitobans died from COVID-19 during the week ended April 16, up from 12 last week. A total of 1,792 Manitobans have died from COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. While admission numbers appear to be flattened, Manitoba hospitals continue to care for a significant number of COVID-19 patients while experiencing staff absences, in part due to COVID-19 infection. Internal data obtained by CBC News reported that 579 patients with COVID-19 were in Manitoba hospitals on Wednesday, an increase of 41 patients since April 19. Of these patients, 28 were in the intensive care unit, two more than in the previous week. On Friday, Winnipeg Regional Health Executive Director Mike Neider told staff by email that a large number of COVID patients in the city’s hospitals had contributed to long waiting times in the emergency departments. Nader said Monday that the flow of patients to hospitals has been disrupted by the need to isolate infectious patients, equip staff with protective equipment and keep patients in emergency wards for longer as they await COVID test results.
