Tuesday April 21, 2020 ~ VANCOUVER ISLAND
by Mary Brooke, B.Sc ~ West Shore Voice News
This evening people’s questions about COVID-19 — from around Vancouver Island — were answered by Island Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Richard Stanwick and CEO Kathy MacNeil during an online town hall hosted by two MLAs: Mitzi Dean (Esquimalt-Metchosin) and Sonia Furstenau (Cowichan Valley).
The one-hour online event the BC Government’s Facebook page (and by phone) ran from 7:15 to 8:15 pm this evening. Over 300 questions had been submitted ahead of time. About 13,000 people tuned in (by phone or through social media).
Dean began by thanking essential workers for all of their work and commitment, and encouraged listeners and all British Columbians to “hold the line and be 100% all in”.
Furstenau said that “everyone doing their very best to get through this”.
MacNeil thanked everyone for tuning. Each of the speakers was participating from their homes. “We’re in our homes where we’re supposed to be,” she opened with.
Island Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Richard Stanwick acknowledged that staying home is a sacrifice. “In terms of experiences it’s unparalleled,” said Stanwick with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s been with Island Health since SARS (which was in 2002) “which was a very serious condition” and he said “we saw the impact of H1N1”. But quickly added that “nothing rivals” COVID-19. He called the handling of COVID-19 “a career-defining and community-defining event”. He said that everyone is taking responsibility for the health of the community. He expressed his “heartfelt thanks for sacrifices” that everyone is making.
When asked why testing for COVID-19 has been so exclusive with many people being “turned down or told to self isolate” as one questioner put it, Dr Stawick said that it was important “to have a rapid turnaround, and we don’t have the capacity”. He said that “important groups” to get the testing include “long term care home, care providers, anyone who is part of a outbreak and those people who are most essential to our operations or most (likely) to suffer consequences”. Anyone with respiratory symptoms can call 811 and get tested, he said.
Dr Stanwick says everyone is yet to see whether the COVID-19 virus “will be
staying with us or move on” or whether it “will behave like other respiratory viruses and ‘disappear’ in the summer months, only to return in the fall”.
Island Health’s chief doctor said that with serological testing – to see if a person has IGG in their blood — will be able to detect evidence of antibodies for COVID-19 (as well as for other pathogens), “to see if you’ve had the invader”. “If you’ve had it, then you’re likely immune,” he said.
He said that as things open up (in terms of social and economic activity), that the private sector might do testing in a widespread way, to see if certain workforces are able to return to work.
Stanwick said that ‘holding the line’ means “to maintain the original set of orders” as set out by Provincial Health Officer (PHO) Dr Bonnie Henry.
Island Health CEO Kathy MacNeil said it was important to keep the health care system from being “overwhelmed” and that BC has achieved this by “people respecting the generous distance (required between people) and following the advice of the PHO and Minister of Health.
As for the restart of scheduled surgeries, MacNeil said “we’re in a phase now where we’re not having the experience we planned for” (i.e. British Columbians have ‘flattened the curve’ and a surge of patients needing hospital care has not happened). “Now we can plan to come out of this phase and plan for surgical ramp up,” she said.
MacNeil said that already surgeries are at 30% of the ‘normal’ (pre-COVID) state. The present range of surgeries include those to deal with trauma (accidents), and things like heart problem and issues that present in the emergency department. “Surgical procedures are being done very day.”
With someone new messaging (compared to the ‘absolute no-surgery’ announcement of a few weeks ago), MacNeil says that “if people have been pospotned, and are suffering or their condition has declined or they are suffering in a new way, please contact your physician’s office”. She clarifies: “We do have the ability to do urgent surgical cases.”
MacNeil says the experience of recent weeks has produced an “opportunity for us to hold onto some of the innovations that we’ve seen during COVID-19”, itemizing virtual care solutions and a new normal for surgery “and not sliding all the way back to what it might have been like before”.
As for personal protective equipment (PPE), MacNeil says: “The entire world needs it right now. Many countries are looking for the same equipment at the same time.” She explained that a method of sterilizing used N95 masks has been developed and is being tested by Health Canada. If masks are treated with an approved method they will be stored for ‘alternative use’ if needed.
For many of tonight’s online town hall viewers, one memorable moment of the livestream will be the photo-bomb moment by a cat in the background of Sonia Furstenau’s live feed. Though she corrected the misperception, saying it was a puppy. We coulda sworn it was a cat (Dr Stanwick thought so too)! Cats and Internet, a forever-theme and meme.