Image Credit: Source/South Okanagan Similkameen Hospital Foundation
November 26, 2021 - 7:30 AM
All five MLAs from the Thompson-Okanagan region have been pushing hard for weeks to get answers to why the COVID capacity limits in the region are so much different from much of the rest of the province.
Yesterday, MLAs from the Interior Health region met with Health Minister Adrian Dix online.
“His answer back to me was similar to the letter and similar to what they’ve been saying for the last month, which is ‘soon,’” Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Norm Letnick told iNFOnews.ca. “I don’t know what soon means is any more. He did say, if there is going to be a change, the earliest that they’ll make an announcement is Tuesday at their briefing.”
Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry give weekly COVID updates most Tuesdays.
At issue is the fact that the Interior Health region, along with the Northern Health region and Fraser Health East, continues to limit public indoor events to 50 people or 50% of capacity and in-home gatherings to five guests or one household.
“We’re hearing from our constituents about how difficult it is and, of course, we live it when we’re at home, with all the sports and the culture and the other businesses,” Letnick said. “People need to make plans and they also need to, hopefully, survive on these capacity limits until they can be reversed.”
In his written response to Letnick earlier this week, Dix quoted Interior Health’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Sue Pollock, to explain why the limits are still in place.
“The Interior region has seen lower immunization rates, higher hospitalization rates and concerning COVID-19 circulation,” Dr. Pollock is quoted as saying. “Fortunately, we are trending in the right direction and once I am satisfied that the risk has diminished, I will lift or adjust these orders accordingly.”
One key concern is that the Interior Health region’s two largest hospitals are the most overcrowded in B.C.
At a news briefing earlier this week, Dix said that Royal Inland Hospital had 279 beds and 292 patients.
READ MORE: Kamloops's Royal Inland Hospital most overcrowded in B.C.
In his letter, Dix said Kelowna General Hospital was at 114.4% of base bed capacity. It has 443 base beds and 68 surge beds for a total of 511. At the time his letter was written (it’s dated Nov. 21), 507 beds were occupied.
From Nov. 14 to 20, there were 159 non-urgent scheduled surgeries cancelled in the Interior Health region and most, if not all, at Royal Inland and Kelowna General hospitals.
COVID case counts, on the other hand, are trending in the right direction.
On August 20, the average case count for the previous seven days was 246 per day, Dix’s letter says.
That daily average dropped to 89 over the seven days up to Nov. 24.
Vaccination rates, however, still lag behind the provincial average in most parts of the Interior Health region. There are 86.9% of B.C. residents who are fully vaccinated, but only 81.3% of Interior Health residents are fully vaccinated and some areas, like Enderby and Kettle Valley, are as low as 68%.
“I don’t believe they have a spreadsheet that goes from red to green,” Letnick said. “I think they look at it and discuss it and make a value decision based on their experience. My hope is, given all the sacrifices that our community members have made in running their businesses at 50% and all the buy-in by most of our community in getting vaccinated, that these will result in our capacity limits going more in line with the Lower Mainland.”
Letnick would not say whether he thinks the limits should have been eased already, simply making the point that all five MLAs in the region have lobbied hard but, in the end, they will abide by what health authorities say.
READ MORE: Obesity likely the biggest risk factor for children getting hospitalized with COVID
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