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MON., JAN. 11
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Vol. 11, Issue 49
CANADA IMMIGRATION SERVICES
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FRI., JAN. 8
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
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Local medical officials air live panel on COVID By Mark Ribble REGIONAL — Medical officials from the area hospitals met on Monday in a Facebook Live panel to answer questions and shed some light on the current COVID-19 situation. Arms Bumanlag, Director of Public Relations and Communications at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington, served as the panel moderator. The panel included Erie Shores HealthCare CEO, Kristin Kennedy, Hotel Dieu Grace CEO Janice Kaffer, Dr. Wassim Saad, Chief of Staff at Windsor Regional Hospital, and Bruce Krauter, Chief of Essex-Windsor EMS. The panel spoke to the current spike in COVID numbers across the region and how local hospitals are responding to those spikes. Starting on the ground with the EMS, Krauter said simply, “Paramedics are tired. We’ve been doing this since March and although we had a short reprieve during the first wave, our call volume in Wave 2 is skyrocketing.” Krauter went on to say that such an increase in COVID calls, takes the EMS away from other life-threatening calls, such as car accidents. Kaffer, speaking from inside The Villages of St. Clair, where she is currently helping with the outbreak at that Long Term Care Facility, reiterated Krauter’s plea. “We’ve been working very long hours and staff are genuinely worried about each other,” she said. “Human resources are depleted.” Kennedy says that community spread is out of control in the Windsor-Essex community right now. “Community spread is increasing and we’re starting to see the spread among our healthcare workers as well,” she said. “Please stay home.” Kennedy says that Erie Shores HealthCare is seeing a drastic increase in patients presenting at the Emergency Room with COVID or suspected COVID. They’ve added two more COVID units at the hospital to keep up with demand. “During the first wave, we were able to get by with just one COVID Unit,” she said. “This past week, we’ve had to add two more.” And to do that, other hospital beds had to be sacrificed to make room for the COVID patients. Dr. Saad spoke to the ICU capacity in the hospitals in this region and asked the public to follow the health guidelines to get us through the coming weeks. “Our ICU capacity is at the breaking point,” he said. When asked about PPE and ventilator numbers, there was some good news. “Thankfully, PPE supply is very good across Canada,” said Dr. Saad. “Ventilators are in good supply across the region.” The biggest question to the panel was about why
COVID PANEL - Page 2
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ESHC WELCOMES FIRST BABY OF 2021
LEAMINGTON — Erie Shores HealthCare welcomed their first baby of 2021 on Monday, January 4 at 3:17 am. Proud parents are John and Elizabeth Friesen, who are pictured here with their son, Zedekai Tobiais, who came into this world at 9 lbs, 13 oz. This is the Friesen’s second child and was brought into this world with the help of midwife Abigail Alkhoury with assistance and care from Dr. Sirek. Parents and baby are doing well. ESHC photo
Hogs raffle nets $114,050 for winner LEAMINGTON — The Hogs for Hospice Holiday 50-50 Raffle was drawn on December 31, with winner Cor Slikboer, of Kingsville, coming away $114,050 richer. Slikboer was presented with his
cheque in front of the Erie Shores Hospice late Monday. A full story will run next week. A photo of the winner is on page 2 of today’s paper.
DID YOU KNOW? You can pick up the Southpoint Sun and flyers at our newsstand in front of our office
194 Talbot Street East, Unit #2
