After an outbreak breakout, just less than two weeks ago, where 15 Covid-19 cases were reported at Pointe-Claire’s Lakeshore General Hospital, another 11 patients have tested positive with the virus. The outbreak was confirmed in a statement from CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Ile-de-Montreal. ‘We have a team on site that is currently reorganizing the containment areas… we try to avoid as much as possible the movement of care staff between hot and cold zones. It should be noted that employees do not move from zone to zone during the same shift. However, we must ensure that we provide essential care to all patients’.
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According to the FIQ (Quebec’s nurses’ union), staff were still moving between the zones. A ‘Cold Zone’ is where patients with other health problems are located and isolated from the rest of the hospital. A ‘Hot Zone’ is where patients who had already contracted the disease are located. This time the new outbreak started on the 3rd floor South, which was supposed to be a ‘cold zone’. Five of the patients who were infected with the virus were on that floor and in private rooms. The other six who were infected were on the 3rd floor North, also a ‘cold zone’.
A spokesperson for the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montreal said that ‘all staff and patients were tested after the first outbreak and since the situation is constantly evolving, we are making sure to conduct ongoing follow-ups with healthcare personnel to ensure that protection and infection-control measures are properly applied’. However, the FIQ representing health workers at the hospital said that not everyone had been tested. They maintain that there has actually been a shortage of N-95 masks and have accused the CIUSSS of making employees wear expired masks, despite the many concerns they raised.
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