As COVID numbers continue to rise, the number of hospitalizations due to the virus has also risen.

There are currently 89 people in hospital and 19 in intensive care because of COVID-19, which is putting a strain on hospitals in the province.

Chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa says they expect critical care to continue to fill up.

“If we have to go over capacity, we already are looking at what those models of care would be and how we would support patients. We’re not going to be denying any patient care, we’re going to figure out the solutions, it may be locally too though, that’s one thing provincially we are all working together to find solutions. But that first line of defence really is happening on a unit level or a hospital level to try and manage the resources from within. Then if it escalates, we all start working together and making sure all those sites in Winnipeg are working together, all the sites in the province are working together, so we will move patients and we have critical care capacity as well in Brandon and those are our two main critical care spots.”

Siragusa says capacity at the ICU’s in Winnipeg is continually being stretched and is at 92 per cent capacity, which leaves 6 beds available.