Thread by @bkives

Manitoba announced 392 new cases of #COVID19 and 10 more deaths on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020.

Active cases: 7,011*
Total caseload: 11,339
Recovered: 4,156
Deaths: 172

* Inflated due to data-entry backlog

Manitoba #COVID19 patients in hospital: 234 (new record, up 14)

In ICU: 42 (new record, up 1)

Five-day Manitoba #COVID19 test-positivity rate: 13 per cent (new record)

Tests completed Sunday: 2,391

The latest Manitobans to succumb to #COVID19:

• A man in his 80s, a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 90s, all from Winnipeg (Maples outbreak)
• A Southern man in his 90s (Bethesda Place outbreak)
• A Winnipeg man in his 90s (Victoria Hospital outbreak)

1/2

• A Winnipeg man in his 80s (Seine River outbreak)
• A Winnipeg man in his 70s
• A Southern man in his 80s (Carman Hospital outbreak)
• A Southern man in his 90s (Brooklyn Terrace outbreak)
• A Southern man in his 70s (Bethesda Regional Health Centre outbreak)

New #COVID19 outbreaks:

- St. Paul’s Residence personal care home in The Pas
- Oakview Place personal care home in Winnipeg

Roussin is using the same messaging as he did on Friday:

"We can't sustain these numbers in our health-care system"
"Our health-care providers are becoming overwhelmed"

Roussin:

Some stores opened this weekend as if there was no such thing as COVID.
We saw packed parking lots.

"If stores were busy and crowded, they weren't following the 25 per cent capacity limits"

Roussin to stores:

We will enforce rules at stores that don't listen.

We know many businesses that purposely found ways to stay open by selling small amounts of non-essential items.

Says province may reconsider what is essential.

Roussin: Reduce your contacts.

Says one case over the weekend had 85 contacts.

"We can't manage this pandemic when you have 85 contacts."

Repeats that contact tracers are receiving verbal abuse from individuals and business owners when they get called about exposed individuals and workers.

"We can't accept this behaviour."

Siragusa speaks.

Siragusa: Opened six more ICU beds over weekend. Up from 93 to 99.

Said there were 46 patients in ICU (official number today is 42)

37 ventilated COVID patients.

Siragusa now addressing more HSC outbreaks. Two more units have outbreaks.

Says outbreaks in hospitals during pandemics are inevitable.

One unit no longer accepting patients.

Shared Health is reviewing PPE guidelines in hospitals because of high rate of community spread.

Siragusa:

Grace Hospital has expanded ICU into recovery spaces (as reported)

Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach has moved patients to other hospitals. No more elective surgeries, for now.

Siragusa:

While we can postpone elective surgeries, it's not ideal.

Siragusa: Rehab staff assisting at Bethesda and Shared Health is looking for other staff to help out with ER and other areas of Bethesda ops.

Siragusa working on creating red zones at Bethesda to triage patients so they don't have to be triaged in their cars.

Siragusa on impacts to health care:

"This is becoming more distressing every day."

Says more and more areas of health care are being impacted. Says nurses and other staff are giving up weekends and are working OT.

Says they are getting tired and feeling stretched.

"They're not going to be able to keep this up forever."

"There is no plan that can prepare us for the demand on our hospitals that 400-plus cases a day are going to create."

Siragusa: 22 health-care tested positive for #COVID19 over past week.

21 in Winnipeg, one in Southern Health.

- 4 nurses
-16 support staff
- 2 TBD

Health-care workers, of course.

Siragusa: Shared Health is looking at setting up temporary hospital space in Steinbach.

An announcement is coming soon if case numbers don't go down.

Roussin on orders for essential businesses:

Repeats a number of places have found ways to open by selling small amounts of essential items.

Says province will crack down - but doesn't say how.

Says order may be revised.

Says Manitobans need to buy in. Says people don't have to shop at a superfluous business just because it's open.

Roussin continues to insist contact-tracing capacity has increased dramatically and characterizes reports about delays as "outliers."

Siragusa: Every hospital can handle a #COVID19 patient.

Severe cases go to critical-care hospitals, like Brandon, Grace, HSC and St. B.

Siragusa: About 3 more ICU patients added per day

Roussin: Hundreds of cases a day are not sustainable, can't handle it for the long term.

Roussin asked how far away is Manitoba from a full-scale lockdown.

He says we have to be able to main access to critical goods and services.

Repeats he's looking at adjusting orders. But says all MBans must step up.

Siragusa asked how a week of training is sufficient for family doctors to work in ICU.

Says Shared Health needs to assess skills.

Roussin asked why not impose tougher measures - the way Australia did, successfully - if we are at a crisis point.

He says we need buy in from Manitobans.

[It's clear we're not getting that.]

Roussin repeats Manitoba no longer knows how #COVID19 is spreading and that's why people must stay home.

Roussin: We can't handle any more cases

Billeck: Why not a real lockdown, then?

Roussin: We need the public to step up

Me: But they're not. Why not tougher rules?

Roussin: We can't just have rules.

Siragusa: Won't confirm province is looking for more spaces to store bodies.

There is a mobile refrigerator truck at HSC already.

Roussin says there will be more enforcement.

Doesn't say how, specifically. Hints at more info later in the week.

Siragusa asked if some patients have been placed on palliative care because there's no resources for intubation.

She says no. The province still has resources.

Roussin asked whether province will put rules in place to better define what critical stores are and what critical products are.

Suggests things will change before the weekend.

"We're going to make changes ... to ensure businesses are not crowded"

Roussin to big-box stores that didn't restrict capacity: You are hurting Manitobans.