'Case counts become meaningless': Chatham-Kent Public Health shifts focus to hospitalizations

A nurse gets a swab ready to perform a test on a patient at a drive-in COVID-19 clinic in Montreal, on Wednesday, October 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Windsor, Ont. -

Chatham-Kent medical officer of health Dr. David Colby says they are dealing with a "giant tsunami" of COVID-19 cases and public health is shifting its focus to hospitalizations.

"We are flooded with unlinked cases," Dr. Colby told the media in Thursdays' briefing. "It is spreading in the community to the point where our case counts become meaningless because of a shortage of testing."

Colby says they are instead focusing on the number of people in hospital due to the virus.

As of Thursday morning, there are 33 patients with COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.

Ten are in a critical care unit, including six in the ICU.

CKHA CEO Lori Marshall says of the six ICU patients, there are five patients on ventilators, all are unvaccinated.

"We continue, certainly to see that the burden of significant illness, in the hospital, we are seeing in our unvaccinated populations," says Marshall.

Marshall says the hospitals critical care occupancy is now 91 per cent and the occupancy in medical-surgical units is at 96 per cent.

"The average age of patients (with COVID) in hospital is 69," says Marshall.

Marshall says they transferred another patient to hospital in London Wednesday and says they're in a "holding pattern" Thursday to possibly send another patient to London.

At CKHA, Marshall says 123 of 1,400 staff members are currently impacted by COVID, either from being sick, or a close contact of a positive case.

"It's impossible to contact trace," says Colby. "So we have to use general measures to tell people, if you’re sick, isolate, isolate for five days."

Colby says they are "aggressively" dealing with outbreaks in congregate living situations like long-term care.

As of Thursday, there are five outbreaks in congregate living.

Colby says the lack of contact tracing and active case counts, is not a reflection that they are giving up the fight.

"In any war, you win some battles and you lose some battles and there is a time to retreat and time to advance," says Colby. "We're doing everything we can, with the ultimate aim of preserving our hospital capacity."