Two outbreaks of COVID-19 are underway in the emergency rooms of Santa Cabrini and Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospitals, the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal warned Tuesday evening. The population is asked to avoid the places “as much as possible”, the time to control the situation.
Posted January 12, 2021 at 5:02 p.m.
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“If people have the opportunity to go elsewhere, go. This is the message. The idea is simply to warn that it would help us to fight against these outbreaks, ”explained to Press CIUSSS spokesperson Christian Merciari, specifying that all services remain nonetheless maintained.
According to the information gathered, the outbreak at the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont emergency affects eight users, 15 employees and six units. That of the emergency of the Hospital Santa Cabrini, for its part, concerns five users, five employees and four units.
In a press release, the CIUSSS also underlines that “anyone with minor health problems” can visit a clinic or contact their family doctor. The Info-Santé line is also accessible at 811 “in case of additional questions”, it is pointed out.
The organization’s Director of Professional Services, the Dre Martine Leblanc, also launched this call for caution within the population. “The numbers of outbreaks on hospitalization units are also increasing, which limits the possibility of hospitalization of patients and generates even greater traffic for our two emergency rooms”, she insisted.
With the large number of people in the emergency room, it is increasingly difficult for us to implement adequate social distancing and infection prevention and control measures.
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Martine Leblanc, Director of Professional Services at the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
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An influx of people to manage
According to the Dre Leblanc, these outbreaks are explained in particular by the “large number of people with COVID-19” who have presented themselves in emergency rooms in the east of the city “for several weeks due to the current community contagion” .
Several new infections have indeed been reported in the sector in recent days. According to figures from the Direction régionale de santé publique (DRSP) of Montreal, available online, Saint-Léonard has notably reported 888 individual cases in the last two weeks. This figure reached 1073 in Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension during the same period.
The CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal alone has identified 3,943 infections during the last 14 days, or 734.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This is the highest rate in the metropolis currently.
In early January, the organization announced its decision to “temporarily” suspend visits to the Hôpital Santa Cabrini and the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, as well as to the Montreal Mental Health University Institute.
“It’s a very difficult situation for everyone, first of all for our staff, because we are short of employees, but also because they can all get sick. The virus is everywhere in the community now, ”said communications advisor Catherine Dion.
– With Ariane Lacoursière, Press
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