Military critical care nurses heading home from Edmonton hospital
The 9 Canadian Armed Forces nurses started landing in Alberta Oct. 4 to help with COVID-19 ICU admissions
Nine Canadian Armed Forces nurses who have been helping care for COVID-19 patients at an Edmonton hospital are on their way back to their home units.
The military says the nurses, who began arriving in Alberta on Oct. 4, were scheduled to remain in Edmonton until today.
A tweet from the military on Friday said they would now be heading home.
They were deployed following a Request for Assistance from the Alberta government on Sept. 22, spurred by rising COVID-19 hospital and intensive care unit admissions.
The CAF Critical Care Nurses in Edmonton are heading back to their home units. Following a request for assistance from the Province of Alberta, 9 CAF nurses arrived in early Oct to begin their orientation & integration into the health care system.
—@3CdnDiv3DivCAAs of Friday's update, there are 8,158 known active COVID-19 cases in Alberta and 780 people being treated for the illness in hospital
As of Saturday, there were 243 patients in ICU, about two thirds of whom are COVID-positive, according to the Alberta Health Services website.
ICU capacity in Alberta, with the additional surge beds, was at 76 per cent as of Saturday, AHS said. Without the surge beds, ICU capacity would be at 140 per cent.
With files from CBC News