Dr. Bonnie Henry: “the most challenging yet”

And, today, he put that into perspective.

With a base of 188,000 staff during the week of January 3rd to 9th, he made some stark comparisons minus the numbers from Island Health and Interior Health.

“In 2022, this year, 14,591 from January 3rd to 9th. In 2021, that number was 7,573. In 2020, which was a higher influenza and respiratory illness year, 8,802 health care workers called in sick in the equivalent week to January 3rd to 9th. So roughly double the amount of sickness on a base of 188,000 health care workers. This is significant.”

And he continued with the numbers, but with respect to rapid testing. “As of the end of day, January 13, 2022, BC has received 4,859,800 rapid tests, total, and has deployed 3,430,400 of these tests to key strategic areas. That leaves a current inventory of 1,429,400 tests. 563,000 of the current inventory are not suitable for deployment, for take-away or personal use. They require special equipment, administration by trained health care professionals and cannot be broken down or re-packaged for self-administration.”

That leaves 866,100 kicks for public use.

Here’s how many of those have been sent out already this week:

*165,000 – Acute care facilities for testing symptomatic health care workers

* 90,000 – Testing sites

*200,000 – K – 12 school testing symptomatic staff

*100,000 – Businesses

But, while there is a hopeful note that Omicron will soon taper off, Dr. Bonnie Henry also painted a dire picture of the near future for the health care system.

“The measures that we took in December, like stopping non-urgent surgeries, backfilling, health human resource management, putting all of those protocols in place are to try and get us through the next few weeks, that are going to be the most challenging yet on our health care system.”

by Cheryl Jahn

Dr. Bonnie Henry: “the most challenging yet”

What's Trending