COVID-19 curve has flattened locally, says Windsor Regional Hospital chief of staff
CBC News | Posted: April 30, 2020 2:09 AM | Last Updated: April 30, 2020
'The only question is how long will this be sustainable for,' says Dr. Wassim Saad
Windsor Regional Hospital chief of staff Dr. Wassim Saad says the COVID-19 curve has flattened locally, but it's still not clear if the region will witness a major increase in cases once businesses begin to open and physical distancing rules are eased.
"Flattening the curve" is a term that describes reducing the spread of a disease to the point where the number of people infected don't overwhelm the health-care systems intended to care for them.
"The surge did not come," Saad told CBC News. "We didn't get the peak in terms of the number of patients presenting and overwhelming our health-care resources."
As of Wednesday, Saad said, there are only two confirmed COVID-19 cases in the intensive care units (ICU) at both Windsor Regional's Ouellette and Met campus sites, compared to between eight and 10 COVID-19 patients at the height of the pandemic.
'I don't think there's any doubt that the curve is flattened locally and the numbers that we're seeing in the hospital are stable and maybe showing signs of decreasing," he said.
"The only question is how long will this be sustainable for, and are we going to see a peak when we start to reopen."
In addition to lower numbers of COVID-19 patients at Windsor Regional's ICUs, Saad said the regional field hospital at the St. Clair College Sportsplex is currently providing care to between 30 and 35 long-term care facility patients with coronavirus.
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"We haven't reached the capacity of 100, and now we're getting to the point where we're working with our hospital partners, with Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and with patients now that are recovering and testing negative," he said. "Hopefully we're getting some of these tests back this week."
Once a field hospital patient has tested negative for COVID-19 twice, they could be moved to Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare on Prince Road as early as next week.
"They'll be able to be transferred to [Hotel-Dieu] after convalescence and further recovery," Saad said.
Despite the current optimistic outlook, Saad said "only time will tell" if Windsor Regional's COVID-19 numbers remain steady.
"When you still have a case of COVID-19 that's in your ICU that's quite sick and has the potential to die, it's very stressful for everyone involved," he said.
As of 1 p.m. on Wednesday, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) has confirmed 586 cases of COVID-19 in the region, with 49 deaths.
Almost 180 cases have been resolved, and 821 people are still waiting on their test results. A total of 6,319 tests have been conducted to date.
Saad's comments come days after WECHU medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed opened his daily briefing on Monday by stating that "we are seeing the flattening of the curve, not only in our region, but also across the province."
"We prevented the surge. We preserved the health care system capacity to serve the needs of our community," he said.
Speaking with CBC Windsor News at 6 host Chris Ensing on Wednesday, Ahmed said over the past two weeks, approximately 25 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the region stemmed from "close contact of a confirmed case."
"[It's] an indicator that the disease is contained and we know who are at high risk," Ahmed said. "If people are following all those precautions … they can protect their own family members and their loved ones."
Ahmed reiterated that the number of community cases are decreasing, adding that the majority of cases now confirmed are "showing up in long-term care homes."
"Community spread seems to be stabilizing," he said.
As for expanding COVID-19 testing criteria to include those who don't show symptoms, Ahmed said testing everyone at a mass level is "not feasible anywhere."
Listen | Dr. Wassim Saad talks about COVID-19, seasonal allergies and the state of Windsor-Essex