Tweet

Aaron Derfel

24 Oct, 10 tweets, 6 min read

1) Has the emergency room of Santa Cabrini Hospital become the canary in the #COVID19 mine in Montreal? On Friday, the east-end hospital urged people to avoid going to its ER following an outbreak among four staff. In this thread, I will concentrate on the city’s ER predicament.

2) During the #pandemic's first wave, Montreal’s ERs were eerily quiet as people stayed away in droves. But during the second wave, that's no longer the case. Santa Cabrini’s ER was still filled to beyond capacity Friday night despite its public appeal for people to stay away.

3) City ERs are treating more walk-in patients with #COVID19. It’s not a high number, but there are cases. And with congested ERs, it becomes harder to separate infected patients from those who aren’t. What’s concerning about Santa Cabrini's cluster is it occurred among ER staff.

@mtlgazette

4) As I wrote about earlier in the @mtlgazette tonight, hospital staff are burned out during this second wave. Many exhausted ER nurses must work double shifts, making it increasingly riskier for them to protect themselves against the insidious virus. montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…

5) As the pandemic wears on in the coming months, the risk increases of more outbreaks like the one among Santa Cabrini's ER staff. Yet the government doesn’t seem to have a plan to address this. Premier François Legault has ruled out raises for nurses beyond the inflation rate.

6) Should more ER staff become infected, they'll have to stay home, as is now the case at Santa Cabrini, draining hospitals' already thin resources. Add to this the chance of even a mild flu season, with coughing patients turning up in ERs, and you start to get the grim picture.

7) Meanwhile, Montreal posted 237 #COVID19 cases Friday, down from nearly 300 the day before, as the orange line indicates in the chart below. Although Quebec collected more than 27,000 blood samples two days ago, there’s likely a #coronavirus testing backlog to be cleared.

8) At the neighborhood level, the city centre comprising Côte-des-Neiges, downtown and Parc-Extension continues to driving #coronavirus transmission. But there are also lots of cases in the east end, including in Saint-Michel and Saint-Léonard, whose patients go to Santa Cabrini.

9) By comparison, the number of #COVID19 hospitalizations and ER admissions appear to have peaked at the McGill University Health Centre, according to the MUHC chart below. Whether this is a one-day blip or a trend for the better remains to be seen.

10) Another potentially positive development is a decline in active #COVID19 cases in schools and in shuttered classes. Please see the Education Ministry's chart below. But since Thursday, covidecolesquebec.org has reported 52 more schools with positive cases. End of thread.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @Aaron_Derfel

Aaron Derfel

@Aaron_Derfel

25 Oct

1) With less than a week left before the month's end, Quebec posted on Saturday more #COVID19 deaths in October (259) than the previous three months combined (229), underscoring the lethality of the #pandemic’s second wave. In this thread, I'll examine fatalities by age group.

2) First, let me emphasize that any life cut short because of #COVID19 — whatever the age — is a death that should have been prevented and is therefore tragic. But in my analysis of the data I’ve come across some noteworthy findings, which I believe are worth sharing.

3) There’s an age group that is gaining in its share of the total number of #pandemic deaths: people in their 70s. Two months ago, the 70-to-79 demographic comprised 17.9% of all such deaths. On Saturday, that share crept up to 18.2% — or 15 more deaths and 1,115 in total.

Read 9 tweets

Aaron Derfel

@Aaron_Derfel

23 Oct

1) Montreal crossed the threshold of 40,000 #COVID19 cases Thursday, a number that's higher than the tallies of Greece (28,216) and Hong Kong (5,281) combined. In this thread, I'll try to show how the #pandemic is wreaking havoc not only in the city but more so across Quebec.

2) Premier François Legault was more somber than he's been in days reporting the addition of 20 #COVID19 fatalities to Quebec’s toll of 6,094. The chart below shows 10 deaths in the past 24 hours at the CHSLD St-Augustin in Beauport, an eldercare home I wrote about yesterday.

3) It appears that the talk of how Quebec’s long-term care centres (CHSLDs) may have been spared during the #pandemic's second wave is premature, given that Health Minister Christian Dubé has dispatched so-called SWAT teams to four CHSLDs to contain their #COVID19 outbreaks.

Read 10 tweets

Aaron Derfel

@Aaron_Derfel

22 Oct

1) The number of #COVID19 outbreaks in Montreal has risen to more than 200 from 130 two weeks ago, the city’s public health director disclosed Wednesday. Hospitalizations are up by almost 9%. Nonetheless, Dr. Mylène Drouin said the city is progressing in the right direction.

2) On Oct. 7, Drouin noted that 40 schools had outbreaks. On Wednesday, that number had grown to 73. Two weeks ago, there were #COVID19 clusters in 50 workplace settings. On Wednesday, that number climbed to 70 and up by two from the day before.

3) A total of 129 people was hospitalized for #COVID in Montreal on Oct. 7, of whom 25 were in intensive care. By Wednesday, those numbers inched up to 140 and 36, respectively. Such figures are far from overwhelming the health system, but are they moving in the right direction?

Read 10 tweets

Aaron Derfel

@Aaron_Derfel

21 Oct

1) Nearly three weeks into Quebec’s partial lockdown, the number of workplace #COVID19 outbreaks in Montreal grew to 68 on Tuesday from 65 a week earlier. In this thread, I will delve into how the #coronavirus is spreading into an expanding number of businesses.

2) First, it appears the decision to shut bars and restaurants has paid off in the metropolis, with the latest chart by the Montreal public health department showing a drop of five #COVID19 outbreaks in such businesses, along with hotels, motels and temporary employment agencies.

3) On the other hand, the #coronavirus has caused three #COVID19 clusters in the chemical industry, including possibly in pharmaceutical plants. Other businesses that have declared outbreaks since last week involve rubber and plastics products, construction, textiles and retail.

Read 10 tweets

Aaron Derfel

@Aaron_Derfel

20 Oct

1) Nearly two weeks after Montreal public health officials disclosed a major #COVID19 outbreak at a seniors’ residence on Sherbrooke St. E., this cluster of cases still hasn’t appeared in the government’s daily updates. In this thread, I will note this is not the only omission.

2) Dr. Mylène Drouin, of the health department, had confirmed that the outbreak at Les Résidences Soleil Manoir Plaza infected 28, hospitalized six and killed one. However, only three cases are currently listed at the seniors’ facility and no deaths, according to Monday’s update.

@ThomasGerbet

3) Lest anyone dismiss this as an isolated incident, credit goes to Radio-Canada’s @ThomasGerbet for exposing information gaffes involving at least six other seniors’ residences and long-term care centres. Two outbreaks were absent from the updates. ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/17422…

Read 9 tweets

Aaron Derfel

@Aaron_Derfel

18 Oct

1) During the #pandemic's second wave, Quebec is calculating #COVID19 deaths differently, focusing on fatalities in the past 24 hours of each day. Following the numbers this way could result in undercounting the actual tally. In this thread, I will explain why this is a problem.

2) If one were to add up the daily #COVID19 deaths declared by Quebec since Oct. 1, the sum would reach 60 as of Sunday. But the province is adding deaths retroactively every day in a series of complicated updates. In fact, the total number of deaths since Oct. 1 is at least 169.

3) Perhaps that’s why it came as a shock to many that Quebec crossed the 6,000-death threshold last week, as the daily updates first report relatively low numbers in the previous 24 hours and then add deaths retroactively only days later. It’s very hard to track deaths this way.

Read 10 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!