BC Reactivates Emergency Hospital Operations Centres

20 hospital emergency operations centres will reopen Jan 9

With the concern of rising cases of not only Covid-19, flu and respiratory illness, British Columbia is reactivating 20 hospital emergency operations centres from January 9.

BC Health Minster Adrian Dix said demand for hospital care is high -- more than 10,000 people were in acute care in the province as of Thursday, a six percent increase from New Year's Eve.

Patients with Covid-19, respiratory synctial virus (RSV) and influenza are in hospital, according to Dix.

When it comes to Covid-19, there are between 300 to 400 cases in hospital in BC.

Dix sees hospitalisation numbers rising

He believes the cases are rising after the Christmas holidays after many people gathered for the first time in three years, and expects the next six weeks to be "really busy".

The emergency operations centres will be in operation for at least six weeks and then review the situation in terms of hospital bed availability, and figure out ways to ease emergency department congestion.

However, health officials are stopping short of calling for mask mandates, which has frustrated some health workers who believe mask-wearing should be strongly recommended particularly in indoor spaces that are crowded.

Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry only advised people to get vaccinated and to wear masks when appropriate.

"If I'm the only one on the bus and the windows are open, and I'm feeling perfectly fine, then no, I probably wouldn't," she said in a radio interview earlier this week on CBC Radio Vancouver.

Henry stops short of strongly advising masking

"If the bus is crowded, or somebody at home is sick, or I'm finished at the end of a cold, and I'm no longer infectious, I wear a mask."

This is hardly helpful advice, further muddying the waters of what people should do to protect themselves. 

One would think with the rising number of hospitalisations and now the plan to reactivate hospital emergency operations centres that Henry would strongly recommend wearing masks.

Her lack lackadaisical attitude towards Covid-19 is baffling and the results are going to lead to more hospitalisations because her advice is not clear. 

While there are a few more people wearing masks out and about, it's not enough to prevent the majority from catching Covid, RSV or influenza...

Quote of the Day: Lo Chung-mau

The QR code scanning will continue, according to Dr Lo

Hong Kong's Secretary for Health Dr Lo Chung-mau insists that the Leave Home Safe app is still useful in the Covid-19 pandemic, even though Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee Ha-yun admitted the government rarely used the app to track contacts of Covid-19 patients.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has asked the Health Department to conduct a full review of the app, but Lo seems to think it's still effective, as he told reporters today:

"The Leave Home Safe" has a very important function as our anti-epidemic measures. It serves as a measure for our Centre for Health Protection [of the Department of Health] in contact tracing and also serves a function for individual citizens of Hong Kong to record places they have visited, so that they can take measures to protect themselves.

Lo says Leave Home Safe app is good

"With the evolution of the pandemic, there are changes in various ways: the virus has mutated, our vaccination rate has increased, our immunity barrier has strengthened, so we may have to adjust some of the functions of the "Leave Home Safe" app. 

"But I must emphasise that emerging infectious diseases are something we have to bear in mind: we had SARS before, we have various infectious diseases and now we have Covid-19 which is still evolving. So I would say that we may adjust the functions of the "Leave Home Safe" app, but I think the "Leave Home Safe" app is a very good app which has helped Hong Kong in the fight against the pandemic. 

"Perhaps in the future we may still need to rely on the "Leave Home Safe" to fight against the other emerging infectious diseases. It is still a very good app."

Lo seems hell bent on Hong Kong residents using the Leave Home Safe app forever, because there will be yet another infectious disease to track.

Henry not strongly recommending masking up

Meanwhile across the Pacific Ocean in British Columbia, parents are angry and terrified with the news that at least six children have died of complications of the flu this fall. In previous years the number was two to three.

In these recent cases, one child was under five years old, three between the ages of five and nine, and two teens who contracted secondary bacterial infections which complicated their flu symptoms.

The province's health officer Dr Bonnie Henry is not calling for a mask mandate, nor is she highly recommending that people wear masks especially in indoor settings. She has only advised that everyone get not only the flu shot but the Covid-19 booster as well.

One health official so lax, the other so stern.

Why can't we have a happy medium?

East Versus West in Dealing with Covid-19

Everyone must wear a mask outside in Hong Kong

Big news in Hong Kong -- anyone arriving in the city from November 21 will only have to do 10 Covid-19 tests instead of 12!

Currently they need to do eight rapid antigen tests (RAT) and four polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but now they can do two less PCR tests. Whoo hoo!

The government says 82 percent of infected arrivals were detected through the first two PCR tests, and only 0.4 and 0.1 percent of infections were found in later tests.

Arrival passengers have 2 less PCR tests to take

Are two fewer tests going to entice more people to come to Hong Kong? Hardly.

But mask mandates are still in force and enforced as soon as you step out of your home. Everywhere from the MTR and bus to shopping malls, supermarkets, and concerts, people must wear masks unless you're eating in a restaurant or eatery, or having a drink.

Children wear masks in the classroom, and need to decipher what the teacher is saying from behind his or her mask. For some young children, wearing a mask is all they know. 

Meanwhile in British Columbia, the provincial health authority stopped short of calling for a mask mandate, despite the rising number of children with respiratory illnesses and hospitals' capacities to the brink.

"I don't believe we need that heavy hand of a mandate," said Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry. "I don't see the need for a mask mandate by itself because we have many other tools and a high level of protection."

Henry stops short of calling for a mask mandate

She said mask mandates were in place before because Covid-19 vaccines weren't available for children, and people were getting sick from gathering.

"In that context, masks were important and necessary. We are in a different situation now. We have a very high level of immunity. We have vaccines. We have treatments for influenza, for Covid-19, for RSV," she said.

But only 50 percent of children have had a first Covid-19 jab. 

RSV is respiratory synctial virus that causes infections in the lungs and respiratory tract.

Some parents, teachers and doctors are calling for a mask mandate or at least mandatory masking in indoor places, but Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix refuse to call for this, only encouraging people to wear masks in settings where it makes sense -- on transit, in crowds, and when sick -- masks are mandatory when in hospitals and long-term care homes.

What's wrong with "strongly recommend"? People may have Covid fatigue, but Covid isn't tired of us, as one health professional in Ontario said last week.

People won't take masking seriously in BC

The more people mask up, then fewer will end up in hospital and fewer healthcare workers will be overwhelmed and sick too.

But not even saying "strongly recommend" makes it hard for people to take masking seriously. No wonder this pandemic will never end... Hong Kong on the one hand is extreme in its Covid-19 regulations, and British Columbia is too lax on the other. 

In general there is a slight increase in people wearing masks in Vancouver, but not enough...