The Health Minister says that it’s fair that people in Kamloops wanted information over the weekend about a COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Inland Hospital.
But speaking on the NL Morning News, Adrian Dix assured people that ‘boots on the ground’ were working hard over the weekend to address the outbreak.
“Every effort is made to get information to the public as soon as its available, in every case. So we try and do that, and we also balance that against the need to take action against the outbreak. Which I think is what Interior Health has to do, primarily. Which is not an issue for communications staff but an issue for doctors and nurses, epidemiologists and healthcare workers,” Dix says.
“The criticism will always come when people want to know things and it’s not instantly available to them. But what I want everyone to know is that all the work that needed to be done to support people was being done by Interior Health. As for communications, well we can always do a better job. And we’ll learn the lessons from this and keep doing our best.”
The total number of COVID-19 at the hospital increased six-fold in between updates, from eight when the outbreak was declared on Friday to 48 in the next update, three days later.
The MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson, Peter Milobar, told NL News there was no reason why Interior Health could not release any information over the weekend. He says the lack of information led to a lot of anxiety and plenty of rumours in the community since the outbreak was declared on Friday.
“I think that speaks to what everyone has been calling for is a proper dissemination of the information in a timely fashion so that the public has accurate information, that employees in the hospital have accurate information and that people understand what is going on within their hospital,” he said.
As of Wednesday, there were 66 total cases linked to the outbreak in surgical unit 6 South – 43 staff and 23 patients – and one death.
Interior Health says staff from other communities have been brought to Kamloops to cover shifts at RIH, for those 43 workers and others who are self-isolating after being exposed.
