A top doc with McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) says the facility has begun planning for expansion of its intensive care unit (ICU) in the event rising COVID-19 cases among youth become serious and require hospitalizations.
Dr. Angelo Mikrogianakis, chief of pediatrics at MCH, says with youth under 12 still not yet eligible to be vaccinated against COVID, the return to school and easing public health measures, the west end hospital is preparing to receive a potential surge in admissions.
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“There are more children experiencing COVID,” Mikrogianakis told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
“The fortunate thing in our circumstances at this point in time, it’s different from other regions. It’s not yet translating to more children in hospital with COVID or having more severe illness.”
In recent weeks, COVID among youth have accounted for close to one-third of Hamilton’s 300 or so active cases with the number reaching 39 per cent at the end of September.
So far, the pediatric doc says, viral activity for kids in the city is at a normal level typically seen as youth go back to school and resume the usual activities in classrooms and closed spaces.
“What’s different this year is that COVID is one of those viruses, and we have to be very vigilant in terms of assessing kids as soon as they begin to have symptoms,” said Mikrogianakis.
More than 120 COVID cases in the last 14 days have been connected with the city’s public school system with 111 incidents among students. As of Tuesday, public schools account for about a third of the city’s ongoing outbreaks amassing 51 cases from 13 locations.
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Mikrogianakis says the preparations are for cases not only at the local level, but potentially from other communities since McMaster is one of the few regional hospitals with pediatric intensive care capacity.
“So things are happening at the provincial level as well as at the local level, and we are looking at ways that we can expand the ICU capacity and work with our community partners and other children’s hospitals to make sure we’re ready should the need arise,” Mikrogianakis said.
At present, the hospital is running at over 100 per cent capacity, in line with what’s being reported as of Wednesday across all facilities under the Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) banner.
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Preparations for expansion of the pediatric ICU began in the summer and are expected to continue in the weeks ahead with challenges finding capacity among nurses, specialized therapists and equipment.
“The reality of being in the pandemic for a long period of time, health human resources, will continue to be a challenge to make sure we can staff the extra beds and the extra space,” Mikrogianakis said.
Hamilton reports 31 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death
Hamilton recorded its 415th COVID-related death on Wednesday connected with a person in their 70s, according to public health.
Another death has now been associated with the 21 ongoing outbreaks in the city as of Oct. 6. The latest is at Hamilton General’s burn trauma unit which has had seven cases linked with a surge that began on Sept. 27.
The Macassa Lodge seniors home is the other current outbreak that has reported COVID deaths — it has two among 21 total cases reported in the last 21 days.
Public health reported 31 new cases on Wednesday which is on par with the seven-day average number of daily cases, 34, which dropped overnight from an average of 36.
The city’s active cases also went down ever so slightly day over day to 248 from 250 as of Oct. 5.
More than 60 per cent of those new cases are among people under the age of 30.
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The city’s reproductive rate — the average number of people an infected person is passing COVID-19 on to — has increased week over week to 1.05 from 0.86.
The number of tests coming back positive for COVID has gone the other way week to week moving from 3.1 to 2.4 as of Wednesday.
Ontario’s test positivity dropped to 1.7 per cent from 1.8 day over day.
Both hospital agencies are reporting day-over-day increases in COVID patients with a combined 28 needing care and 11 in ICUs as of Oct. 6. On Tuesday there were just 25 in the city’s hospitals.
Hamilton has 21 outbreaks with public schools accounting for 13 of them. There are 60 cases connected with the current surges among educational facilities in the city – including nine at Redeemer University.
The only new outbreak is with the Eva Rothwell youth facility in central Hamilton which has reported a pair of staff cases.
The outbreak at St. Joseph’s Villa was closed on Wednesday. The senior’s home had nine cases over a 16 period.
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The number of cases connected with Hamilton’s current 21 outbreaks is 112.
Another 1,378 doses of COVID-19 vaccination shots were put into the arms of Hamiltonians on Tuesday, only slightly lower than the 1,485 reported through the entire month of September. The provincial proof-of-vaccination restrictions for non-essential services took effect on Sept. 22.
So far an average of 1,276 shots have been administered in the city since the beginning of October.
Hamilton still lags behind most of the province in two jabs, as only 78.2 per cent of the city’s population have been fully vaccinated. The city is fourth last among all 34 health units behind the provincial average for two shots at 81.7 per cent.