THUNDER BAY – A COVID-19 isolation unit at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre initially built to house up to 36 patients is being closed after only treating a dozen patients over a three-month span.
However, hospital officials say they can have the third-floor unit back up in running in a matter of about 24 hours should an expected coronavirus wave hit the region in the fall.
Dr. Stewart Kennedy, who heads the hospital’s incident management team, on Wednesday said it’s good news, but by no means is Thunder Bay out of the woods, as case counts rise in other jurisdictions – though not in Thunder Bay, where 92 of 93 cases have been resolved, with one death attributed to the virus.
“This is a milestone transition in our COVID-19 pandemic response and it highlights our community’s success in terms of avoiding an influx of positive cases at our hospital,” Kennedy said.
“This unit opened in early April 2020, to allow for a potential influx of COVID-19 patients. This influx never occurred. The total number of patients treated on the unit was 123 ... Only 12 of those patients were COVID-19-positive. We only had four at one time.”
Kennedy said the goal is to use the beds designated for the unit for other medical purposes, allowing for other treatments and procedures to take place, as they would prior to the pandemic’s declaration this past March.
“Of course, this doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. COVID-19 is still in our community and as we’re experiencing in other areas right now, like Alberta and B.C., it is increasing once we actually open up the rules for further gatherings,” Kennedy said.
“We expect we’ll get more COVID-19 cases here at Thunder Bay Regional Hospital. But the process of the COVID-19 (unit) closing is to make room and additional surgical capacity as we increase our elective surgery, taking care of the pain and suffering of many of our community members who have endured COVID-19.”
For now, any patients diagnosed with or suspecting of having COVID-19 will be housed in one of several negative pressure rooms located throughout the hospital.
Kennedy said once that number hits seven, the incident management team will meet again to determine if it’s necessary to restart the COVID-19 unit again.
Dr. Salima Oukachbi, one of two dedicated physicians on the unit, said initially it was tough to choose to work so closely with the virus, which has killed more than 618,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, including more than 8,900 in Canada.
There were plenty of unknowns at that time, including what drugs to treat patients with and how it was actually transmitted.
“I think we were fortunate enough at Thunder Bay Regional where we didn’t have as many patients and the community stepped up and did what they had to do,” Oukachbi said.
“The difficulty treating those patients is having the false negatives. Sometimes we’d do a test and it would come back negatives, but the symptoms from the labs and from the presentation of the patient, you’d feel this patient has COVID.”
Precaution always won out, she said.
Oukachbi said while the public awaits a successful vaccine to build up herd immunity, that same time of attitude must be maintained.
“To stress it more, it’s physical distancing and using masks. If you have symptoms, stay home and self-isolate. If you get worse, you come to the hospital.”
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit has declared, starting on Friday, it will be mandatory to don masks in indoor public spaces in all communities in the district.
