St. Catharines Standard e-edition

Niagara ICUS are still over capacity

COVID-19 cases more severe, require longer recovery in third wave

ALLAN BENNER

While intensive care units at some GTA hospitals have begun to empty of COVID-19 patients, Niagara Health’s Level 3 ICUS continue to operate beyond capacity.

On Thursday, University Health Network’s Toronto General Hospital celebrated having its ICUS empty of COVID-19 patients for the first time since the pandemic began in spring 2020.

It could take a few more weeks before local hospitals cross that milestone, though.

Niagara had six COVID-19 patients in its ICU Friday, pushing the unit to 107 per cent capacity compared to pre-pandemic levels.

But Dr. Karim Ali, head of infectious diseases for Niagara’s hospital system, said the region’s bout with the infection is improving, nevertheless.

“At the peak of the third wave, we were seeing three to five admissions per day,” he said, adding that has dropped to one or two admissions every few days or so.

He said the hospital currently has 27 patients admitted with COVID-19, including five associated with an ongoing outbreak at the Niagara Falls hospital’s Unit D/stroke Unit where 11 people were infected.

“What we have to understand is in this devastating third wave, people are much sicker,” he said.

“When you are on the

ventilator, and you get medications like steroids, like dexamethasone and other medications, some people are on ventilators or in the ICUS for prolonged time,” he said. “It’s not like wham bam and you’re done.”

By comparison, he said, the majority of ICU patients during the second wave of the pandemic were elderly people “and they would get very sick and die very quickly.”

“Here with people in our (younger) age groups, they get very sick, and because they have good reserves they develop complications and are on the ventilators for a long time,” he said. “It’s a more complex disease at this time.”

Despite increasing prevalence of the Delta variant, Ali said, they have yet to see a patient with a confirmed case of that strain of the virus.

But “it’s only a matter of tim-e” before that changes, he said.

Ali said the emergence of that more transmissible and dangerous variant makes it “extremely crucial” for people to get their first shot of vaccine, as well as their second dose as soon as permitted.

He said research indicates the best way to prevent infection and curb the spread of the Delta variant “is to get your vaccination series complete.”

While people had previously been advised that waiting longer before their second dose of vaccine would enhance its effectiveness, Ali said that message has changed as information evolves through ongoing research.

“This is a day-to-day. This is how medicine and science evolve constantly, and that’s just par for the course. This is a pandemic and we’re learning new things,” he said.

“What has changed this time is obviously the Delta variant ... and we know two shots are more effective than one,” he said.

Ali said patients who received Astrazeneca vaccine have borne the brunt of that evolving information. Ontario and other provinces stopped providing first doses of that vaccine after data linked it to a slim chance of blood clots forming among patients.

But recent research, he added, has shown that “one shot of Astrazeneca is about 71 per cent protective against hospitalization and severe disease, and two shots are more than 90 per cent” effective.

He said immunity provided by two doses of Astrazeneca is about on par with people who received an MRNA vaccine.

“I want to say this to our folks who took Astrazeneca: You saved lives. Thank you,” he said.

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2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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