Mathieu Chalifoux, lead COVID-19 epidemiologist with Public Health (left) and Dr. Gordon Dow, infectious disease specialist of Horizon Health Network take part in a technical briefing (Photo via GNB)
As New Brunswick continues to feel the grim effects of the pandemic’s fourth wave, there may be more bad news on the horizon.
Increasing concerns over the highly infectious delta variant were emphasized in a technical briefing last Friday, featuring four highly regarded medical professionals.
Participating in the briefing was Dr. Gordon Dow, infectious disease specialist of Horizon Health Network; Mathieu Chalifoux, lead COVID-19 epidemiologist with Public Health; Dr. John Dornan, interim president and chief executive officer of Horizon Health Network; and Dr. France Desrosiers, president and chief executive officer of Vitalité Health Network.
Delta has become the predominant strain in New Brunswick, according to Chalifoux. He stated more than 85 per cent of all COVID-19 samples taken over the first 19 days of September were related to the variant that originated in India.
Unease over the Delta variant stems from its daunting characteristics that are far superior to the original strain.
It’s twice as infectious as the original strain, it has a shorter incubation period, one dose of a vaccine is not effective against this variant and the Delta variant appears to be more likely to lead to hospitalization and death, according to Dow.
“This is not the same virus that was circulating around the globe one year ago,” stated Dow.
So, how do you combat the Delta variant? With the same health measures used in the previous waves of COVID-19 and by being fully vaccinated, he said.
“Everything we did before and did so effectively works for this virus,” said Dow.
He prescribed a menu of simple health guidelines that include registering and quarantining unvaccinated travellers, mandating vaccines for specific groups of employees, requiring proof of vaccination for non-essential activities, wearing a mask, reducing social contacts and physical distancing.
New Brunswick now needs to vaccinate 90 per cent of the total population for “optimal community protection,” according to the infectious disease specialist.
Despite the reinstatement of Public Health measures, both Dow and Chalifoux stated things could get worse before they get better.
“Under our current growth and under what we’ve seen so far, we do expect hospitalizations will continue rising for some time… It will take some time for these measures to bring the expected on-ramping down,” said Chalifoux.
Healthcare System
Rising hospitalizations and intensive care patients could be devastating for an already fragile healthcare system.
The Vitalité and Horizon health networks announced increased health measures last week that restricts the unvaccinated from visiting their facilities.
“The experiment is over. We have had a significant fraction of our population, 70 per cent plus have the [vaccine]. They are not presenting to our hospitals any more often than the typical person would for illness, surgeries and the like,” said Dornan.
“Then we have the control group, folks that have decided as is their right, to not have the vaccination, and we are seeing that those folks are getting sick.”
Dornan said COVID-19 patients who require intensive care often cause surgeries to be cancelled due to the lack of resources.
Horizon announced the temporary closure of the labour and birth unit at the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville on Friday, citing a need to “adjust staffing to provide care for COVID-19 patients” at the same facility.
When asked about which services will be cut next, Dornan said they will continue reducing services when needed to support basic care, but there is no specific order.
“We are fragile, but we are doing as much as we can, and every time something new hits, more people come in, more beds get filled, our emergency departments become more filled, we pull back incrementally in the services we provide.”
