Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 17, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba ■e-C MBK PAGE A1 0 FLYER IN TODAY'S PAPER WINNIPEG SUBSCRIBERS ONLYTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 17 2020 É * S Checkup | % A look inside Health Sciences Centre* k f as second-wave battle wages on B1 Í M M MB FOUNDED IN 1872 ■ & & & B^^Wmip% Free Press► CONNECT WITH CANADA'S HIGHEST READERSHIP RATE JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS V for vaccinated: Sherry Plett can't hide her excitement after becoming the first Manitoba nurse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Manitoba health-care workers celebrate as inoculations begin ‘Today we start fighting back' KELLY GERALDINE MALONE A DOCTOR who works in an intensive care unit became the first person in Manitoba to get the COVID-19 vaccine, on the same day the province reported 15 more deaths from the novel coronavirus. “We are extremely lucky that we live in Canada, in Manitoba, and that people made huge efforts to get us this vaccine,” Dr. Brian Penner said Wednesday after being inoculated around 8:30 a.m. Penner, who works at Health Sciences Centre, said he felt extremely fortunate to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, because it will help keep his patients safe. He said he felt well after getting the shot. Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, said about 900 health-care workers are expected to receive the vaccine by the end of the week. Everyone will require a second dose in three weeks. “We’ve been dealing with this virus for nine months. We are going to have to deal with it for many more months,” Roussin told a news conference. “But today we start fighting back.” Roussin said it was a journey to organize how to get the vaccine from the manufacturer to the dose in Penner’s arm. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must remain in the same location where it is delivered. An ultra-low temperature freezer was installed at the University of Manitoba’s Bannatyne campus, where the immunization clinic is set up. The province expects to establish similar sites in Brandon, Thompson, Steinbach, Gimli, Portage la Prairie and The Pas in the new year. Sherry Plett, who works in an intensive care unit and an emergency room in southern Manitoba, was also vaccinated Wednesday. She said she did a happy dance when she learned she would be among those getting a dose in the first round. “I need to be healthy so I can be there and look after people in our community.” The government has said it hopes to vaccinate more than 100,000 people by March, which is roughly seven per cent of the population. “It’s that glimmer of hope we all needed,” Roussin said. “But we just can’t let that hope blur the critical point we are in right now. We need to maintain our focus during this holiday season.” • INOCULATIONS, CONTINUED ON A2 At 75, longtime ICU nurse ready to roll up sleeve MELISSA MARTIN ONCE or twice every week, Frances Ferguson heads to Health Sciences Centre and carefully pulls on her personal protective equipment, ready for another shift on the front lines as an intensive care unit nurse. In this, she is united with hundreds of health workers across the province who are holding the front line against COVID-19. But in one way, Ferguson stands out: at 75, she is in the most at-risk age category, often the same age or older as many of the vulnerable patients who arrive in the ICU, desperately sick with the virus. This morning, Ferguson will become one of the first Manitobans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. “I’m really thrilled,” Ferguson said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s pretty exciting. There are some very smart people who have worked very hard to get this vaccination mobilized this quickly... It’s the beginning of our freedom. It’s the beginning of our free life again.” The province began the historic immunizations Wednesday morning, rolling out jabs to about 300 Manitoba health-care workers, with a Frances Ferguson total of 900 to be given the first dose of the vaccine by Friday (a second dose is required three weeks later). With limited doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the initial delivery to the province, the first round is targeted to those who work directly with CO-VID-19 patients and are in the most at-risk age groups for severe illness. Ferguson ticks both of those boxes. When the phone line to book vaccination appointments opened Saturday, it was swamped by over 100,000 calls; but she kept trying, dialing the number what she estimates to be hundreds of times before finally getting through to an operator Sunday. • NURSE, CONTINUED ON A2 WEATHER: PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH -2 — LOW -4 Asymptomatic staff, PPE problems drive care home outbreaks DANIELLE DA SILVA DESPITE being con fined to their rooms amid stepped-up infection controls, residents of long-term care homes that have COVID-19 outbreaks, continue to get the virus — often due to it hitching a ride with unsuspecting staff. Dr. Jazz Atwal, Manitoba’s acting deputy chief public health officer, said many large-scale care home outbreaks are due to breaches in personal protective equipment or issues related to following public health advice. “We still have a few hundred cases being generated every day, our test positivity is still at 13.5 per cent; so there are individuals who may be asymptomatic and don’t realize that they are carrying the virus and go to work,” Atwal said Wednesday during a media briefing. “There are (PPE) protocols in place in all the care homes, as well. On investigation, in a lot of these instances, there seems to be a breach in some of the PPE protocols, which introduces that virus into the facility.” Currently, 31 of 39 long-term care facilities in Winnipeg have ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19. As of Wednesday, Charleswood Care Centre had 121 cases, including 84 residents, and 27 deaths; Holy Family Home had 153 cases, including 111 residents, and 19 deaths; Park Manor reported 102 cases, including 62 residents, and 19 deaths. “Ongoing work is being done with public health and with all the stakeholders to ensure that we mitigate that risk as much as possible,” Atwal said. “We want to get in there and make sure that we’re working with the care homes, and all the institutions, to make sure that people are doing what they need to do from an infection prevention and control stand- point, and are adhering.” Sharon Wilms, chief executive officer and director of care at Convalescent Home of Winnipeg, said the novel coronavirus “silently crept” into the century-old centre. “It is suspected that the current outbreak can be traced to an asymptomatic staff member who, when tested as a matter of contact tracing, tested positive,” Wilms said, noting an outbreak was declared Dec. 6. “This staff member continues to be asymptomatic, but the virus was in the building and with residents living in shared rooms, with shared washrooms, the flame was lit for the infection to take hold and spread.” According to Wilms, the home has 44 cases (12 staff, 32 residents) and five deaths, less than two weeks after the first case was discovered. Wilms said the current facility was built in the 1960s to “hospital standards,” with 72 residents sharing rooms and bathrooms. For years, its board of directors had been in discussion with the province about a new building, but talks were paused when the PCs formed government in 2016. “Our home is truly the most at risk in Manitoba to any type of outbreak because of having the highest number of shared rooms in the province,” Wilms said. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority declined Wednesday to comment on the rates of infection among long-term care residents. A spokesman deferred to an update published Tuesday to its website. WRHA clinical leads are supervising 12 personal care homes. Meanwhile, the Canadian Red Cross epidemic prevention and control team is at Charleswood, which is owned and operated by Ontario-based Revera Inc. • OUTBREAKS, CONTINUED ON A2 A STAIN ON OUR GAME The life and destructive legacy of Graham James A players' revolt, a predator enabled Chapter 4 of Free Press investigation goes inside an unravelling Swift Current dressing room, discovers how players' efforts to oust coach were ignored by team and league officials / C1-4 0 INSIDE LIFE OF BRIAN Premier Pallister reflects on leadership style, Costa Rica, retirement and going viral / A8 NYGARD IN FOR FIGHT MOON MISSION Unless former fashion magnate consents to extradition, legal battle will linger / A5 Canada has signed a deal to join forces with the U.S. on a space mission / A10 JUSTICE SERVED Fourteen convicted in 2015 Charlie Hebdo, market killings in France / A12 -e- -e- A_01_Dec-17-20_FP_01.indd A1 0 2020-12-16 10:59 PM ;