Title: [Reporting on Omicron's impact on Greater Victoria hospitals]

URL: https://twitter.com/brish_ti/status/1474230304206630916/

Description: Brishti Basu on Twitter: "Latest for @CapitalDailyVic : I spoke to two doctors who work in Island Health/#yyj hospitals who say public health has not communicated any plans regarding what will happen when the predicted surge of #omicron cases hits BC hospitals: / Hospitals across the Island are nearly full already & care is already being compromised due to shortages @bcCOVID19group modelling shows even in best case scenario, BC expects 700 hospitalizations and 400 ICU by Jan 8 (For context, today there were 195 active cases in hospital) / “It’s a double whammy because not only are we over-capacity for patients, we’re short-staffed on nurses,” said @AmyTanMD “People are burnt out, people have retired, people have quit. It's actually worse than March 2020 because the system is so burnt out from two years of this. / With more #omicron patients on the way, she and James, an emergency physician at VGH and Jubilee, fear more and more healthcare workers will get infected. Consequences: more nurse/doctor shortages while they isolate + staff inadvertently spreading COVID to other patients. / One simple step they want, which ON and AB have taken: N95 masks for hospital staff to wear when in contact with COVID-positive or suspected COVID-positive patients. To do this, BC public health would have to acknowledge airborne transmission. / Anecdotally, more HCWs have been infected recently than before. But, James says, public health still says transmission doesn't happen at hospitals. The lack of adequate PPE is contributing to heightened risk + HCWs feeling like govt and public health don't have their back. / “We know if the virus is transmitted in the air, it doesn't matter where you are,” James said. “The virus doesn't know whether you're in church or whether you're in a gym or whether you're in a shopping mall, or in a restaurant.” Full story: #COVID19BC"

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Subject:   Island Health ,  Omicron Variant,  Variants of Concern,  BC COVID-19 Modelling Group,  Tan, Amy,  Province of British Columbia