Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman addressed a recently-discovered discrepancy in COVID-19 hospitalization numbers during a press conference Thursday.
Merriman said that he was informed of the discrepancy in ICU counts and data for Regina on Wednesday evening.
“That led to inaccurate reporting on the dashboard and the daily news releases. This is not acceptable, the public of Saskatchewan expect and deserve accurate public reporting of our COVID data and Dr. (Saqib) Shahab requires accurate data to inform his directions and recommendations to government. We have come up short in this regard,” Merriman said.
According to the province, the discrepancies in previous reports were a result of how patients who receive intensive care in a surge bed outside of an ICU were being recorded.
“This morning I met with the CEO of the SHA (Scott Livingstone) to express my disappointment and concern over this error. To ensure that this was corrected as quickly as possible and to ensure that the data will be reported accurately, as minister I am ultimately responsible for this and I apologize for the error in this reporting,” Merriman added.
There were 193 people reported in hospital on Thursday which was a large increase over the 166 reported on Wednesday. In Regina, the number of people listed as receiving inpatient care increased from 74 on Wednesday to 78 on Thursday. ICU patients in Regina changed from 15 people on Wednesday to 23 on Thursday.
Merriman said that hospitalization numbers, along with modelling, active case numbers and other data points, are parts of the decision making process and important for determining what restrictions to enact.
Livingston himself acknowledged that the SHA takes full responsibility for the error. He explained that because of surge capacity, patients who were in ICU were temporarily moved to other wards and were not counted as ICU admissions.
“That has been the single biggest contributor as well as some of the daily reporting errors we have corrected it and then of course will be 100 per cent accurate as of 8 o’clock in the morning,” Livingstone said.
The time which the error existed was short, Livingstone said, because Regina only recently went into surge capacity. He explained that it had a big impact on where cases were distributed.
“We were counting, for example, somebody that was in a medicine bed being in an ICU bed but that would be counted as a non ICU bed. But as I said it has been corrected,” Livingstone said.
According to the new numbers there are 159 people receiving in patient care with two in North Central. Of the 34 individuals now reported as being in intensive care there are none in North Central.
Care was not impacted because of this data reporting according to Livingstone.
“All patients received the care that they needed whether that was ICU or non ICU, whether infectious or non-infectious. The data reporting has no impact on the care that these patients received,” he explained.
The SHA also announced Thursday that they will be expediting the opening of additional drive thru and walk-in clinics in communities around Saskatchewan to deliver vaccines including Prince Albert.
This is as a result of an earlier than expected allocations of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. Saskatchewan is scheduled to receive approximately 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine between April 1 and April 7.
Other communities that will see additional clinics include Regina, Saskatoon, Yorkton, Moose Jaw, Weyburn, Swift Current, Lloydminster and North Battleford and open to people 55 and over.
“All of these new clinics are first come, first served so you may be waiting for a while but the lines actually move pretty quick and thanks to the efficiency of our health care workers. It is certainly worth the wait,” Merriman said.
These clinics will be operating throughout the Easter long weekend.
“The road to the end of this pandemic goes right through those clinics, so thank you for doing your part to protect yourself and those around you,” he explained.
Merriman said that the vaccine rollout is continuing to increase with almost 80 per cent of people 80 and over, nearly 60 per cent of people in their 70s and almost a quarter of people in their 60s having received their first dose.
“In total, our dedicated health care workers have now delivered over 200,000 shots in the arm of Saskatchewan residents. Because of the slow pace of our vaccine deliveries in Saskatchewan to start the vaccine program, it took 89 days from December 15 to March 13 to deliver our first 100,000 shots. It took just 19 days to deliver the next 100,000 shots,” Merriman said.
Shahab emphasized that this is our second Easter in the pandemic and hopefully the last. He reminded everyone to take care with variants of concern (VOC) active in the province. Ways to take care include using virtual worship options, remaining close to home and taking care if going out to do things.
“I see that my fellow colleagues, medical health officers, have published similar requests and advised their communities locally. It’s important for all of us in Saskatchewan to take special care over this long weekend and school break,” Shahab said.
Regina continues to see rising case numbers and other places with concern include Moose Jaw, Weyburn and Estevan and need to be extra cautious over Easter.
“But we have also seen how things can change quickly, while the rest of Saskatchewan has low case numbers we have seen how in some southern communities where within two or three weeks things can turn around very quickly,” he added.
Shahab explained that transmission is happening while people do everyday things in workplaces and having brief contact with someone outside the household.
“We just need to be extra diligent because whereas COVID was unforgiving and would get in whenever given a chance, the variants of concern, especially B 1.1.7, is definitely unforgiving and takes advantage of any lapses in our COVID protocols,” Shahab said.
Regina currently has 1,046 active cases with 115 new cases reported Thursday and Moose Jaw and area has 121 active cases with 12 new cases reported. Shahab advised people for the second consecutive press conference to monitor the map at the province’s dashboard to watch case numbers.
“About 40 per cent of transmission is asymptomatic, you can be well and you let your guard down and allow one to get exposed and similarly another part of transmission is right at the beginning of symptoms, your symptoms are very mild and by the time you realize your symptoms transmission may have occurred. That is why we have to be very careful ,” Shahab said.
Shahab said that the vaccine starts protecting people within two to three weeks so that lag means people shouldn’t let their guards down.
“You still need to be careful after getting vaccinated but within two weeks the vaccine can start protecting you. We have seen our hospitalization numbers go up significantly especially in Regina and unfortunately with the variants a younger demographic is being hospitalized. The vaccine is protecting long term care residents 80 and older because they are in that three week post vaccine,” Shahab said.
“It is so critical that we must continue to be vaccinated as soon as our turn comes,” he added.
Saskatoon could see a surge in cases of variants but Merriman believes that the current measures are strong enough at present.
“I would say we do have very strong measures in Saskatoon. We haven’t changed the measures in Saskatoon,” Merriman said.
