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Saturday marks the 3rd anniversary of the day Saskatchewan declared a state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, but experts say the virus is still suspended.
“It has stabilized, but it has stabilized at a fairly moderate to moderately high level, which is not where we want to see it,” said Dr. Cory Neudorf, professor of community health and epidemiology at the USask College of Medicine.
Saskatchewan researchers awarded $20 million to help study and combat long effects of COVID
Neudorf said a persistent level of COVID-19 is straining the hospital system, adding that it is above normal emergency levels and teetering on the brink of crisis.
He said large tertiary hospitals are experiencing overcapacity beyond what would normally be expected.
“We cannot maintain this usual level of pressure plus the pressures of COVID-19 without having negative impacts on staff and patients.”
Statistics from the province’s CRISP reports show the persistence, with staffed COVID-19 inpatient beds consistently hovering around five to six percent between January 19 and March 16, deaths hovering around less than 20 people compared and the resident population with up to date vaccinations is stagnating around 46 percent.
Neudorf said the steady levels of hospitalizations and deaths are still concerning, but they’re not as high as the peak of the pandemic.
“We lose sight of the fact that less than 20 (deaths) per reporting period translates to one or more deaths per day from COVID-19, which is always very concerning.”
He added that we have become desensitized to this.
Neudorf said they are seeing a recent increase in the number of middle-aged residents being admitted to intensive care, suggesting that the XBB 1.5 subvariant is slowly gaining traction.
He said they were no longer looking at test results, noting that they had to look at sewage results instead.
“Just as winter hangs on, so does COVID-19 hang on.”
He said he expects this constant level of virus in the short to medium term until spring.
Neudorf said he was disappointed to see the lack of uptake of the bivalent booster, reiterating the message that the booster protects better against these subvariants, which he says find ways to circumvent the vaccine to cause infection. .
He said people should stay home if they are sick, but said he recognized there were so many respiratory viruses circulating.
“I think what happened is because we have so many respiratory viruses going around right now, for parents who did, or if you had to stay home, it’s lots of sick time. And so employers should also continue to support these hybrid work arrangements if you can. »
Neudorf said we should expect to see a seasonal ebb and flow of infection, with summer seeing cases drop and winter seeing cases rising, adding that this could continue for several years.
Dr. Julie Kryzanowski, Saskatchewan’s deputy chief medical officer of health, said the CRISP report looks at respiratory disease across the board.
She said the overall respiratory disease burden was trending down at the moment, but COVID-19 had stabilized.
Kryzanowski added that modeling shows we should continue to see COVID-19 transmission over the next few weeks and months, but nothing extreme.
“There is nothing that points to another wave at this point and at this time.”
She said she couldn’t speak to hospital overcapacity, but noted that Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) analytics teams are reviewing CRISP reports to help predict bed utilization.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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