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SUN President Tracy Zambory said Thursday that the union had heard from three different nurses working at the facility.

“What we’re dealing with is a patient that was admitted, has been in hospital on a ward for 5 days has now tested positive for COVID-19 and that person was all over the ward, was looked after by all the staff and housekeeping and everything. It’s very serious,” Zambory said.

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab confirmed the case at Pasqua Hospital during a media briefing Thursday.

Zambory expressed bafflement that the situation did not appear to be drawing the same response as a case discovered at Prince Albert’s Victoria Hospital, where a patient admitted on April 21 was found to have COVID-19 after spending several days in care.That situation prompted the local medical health officer to declare an outbreak and led to patients and staff self-isolating.

Zambory said she’s been told by members that the response to the Pasqua case looks nothing like what happened in Prince Albert.

“What’s happening is very little. Nothing at all like what was happening at the Victoria Hospital. It was very swift, people who were in contact were sent home for two weeks, parts of the hospital were closed, but for whatever reason at the Pasqua Hospital we’re choosing to be hush-hush.”

With the province in the midst of the Reopen Saskatchewan plan for a gradual resumption of businesses previously shuttered due to the pandemic, Zambory said registered nurses were concerned at how the response has played out in Regina.

“What are we doing here? Why are we not reporting this in a fulsome way like we did the Victoria Union Hospital. What’s going on here? I think it makes registered nurses very nervous, as to what appears to be almost secrecy so that certain plans aren’t ripped asunder.”

A statement sent to the Regina Leader-Post Thursday by a Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) spokeswoman said about 60 health care workers and one other patient are thought to have come in contact with the infected individual, who is isolated within the hospital and is reported not to be “experiencing serious illness at this time.” Close contacts have also been identified and isolated, according to the SHA statement.

However, the statement noted there was no immediate plan to declare the situation as an outbreak.

“This COVID positive case does not fit the definition of a confirmed outbreak in an acute care facility at this time. As the investigation continues, this may change,” 

The hospital remains open, albeit with restricted visiting put in place at all hospitals due to the pandemic.

Asked Thursday about the situation at Pasqua Hospital, Shahab said it wasn’t being called an outbreak because guidelines are different depending on what type of facility a case is found in. He said outbreaks would still be declared after one case in places like long term care facilities, where a fixed group of patients typically remains on site long term and staff typically only work at that location. Shahab said declaring an outbreak after one case in such facilities makes sense because it triggers enhanced measures around things like cleaning.

“Even if you have one case, it’s not really an outbreak because an outbreak is two or more cases, but what the outbreak notification does is it puts in extra procedures and protocols above and beyond the very stringent protocols we already have.”

He said hospitals are different in that many patients and staff come and go, so while an outbreak might not be declared outright upon finding a case, an investigation would be undertaken to make sure no one else had been infected. “So a single case results in an investigation starting, but an outbreak would only considered if there was evidence of further transmission in the hospital,” he said.

—With Leader-Post files from Arthur White-Crummey and Ashley Martin