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| Northern Health has provided an update to the outbreak of flu cases at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital |
Northern Health has finally provided some additional information on the outbreak of flu in the Prince Rupert region, delivering a 3 PM update to their Facebook page that brings residents up to date on the situation at Prince Rupert Hospital.
In their information release, the Health agency notes that they have seen lab-confirmed cases of influenza in some of the patients at Prince Rupert Regional and as a result, the Medical Health Officer has declared an outbreak.
Officials also advise that it takes only a handful of cases of illnesses, such as the flu, for the Health Agency to declare an outbreak so that they can control and end it early, before it can affect more people.
They also look to reassure the community that this is in no way related to coronavirus.
As a result of the outbreak, the hospital has put infection control practices in place. Asking that visits to patients at the hospital be avoided.
As well, if the situation is urgent and visitors feel they must enter the hospital that they ensure that they themselves are feeling well and to speak to nursing staff about any precautions that may be necessary.
Towards services provided at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital, Northern Health notes the following:
The emergency dept is still open and ongoing care for inpatients are no affected.
Out of an abundance of caution, Prince Rupert Regional Hospital is taking some additional precautions in temporarily postponing elective (non-urgent) appointments and procedures (day surgeries, endoscopy’s and colonoscopy’s and elective surgeries), and recommending that maternity patients consider delivering elsewhere.
They also reinforce for the public that no patients will be turned away.
When it comes to declaring the outbreak of the flu at an end, Prince Rupert Regional Hospital must go six days without any new cases.
They are hopeful that their steps will be successful in preventing new cases and will update the community when the situation is declared over.
You can explore more notes on Health care in the Northwest from the following Northern Health resources.
Northern Health website
Northern Health twitter feed
Northern Health Facebook
Northern Health does offer up some advice when it comes to the flu, with suggestions on how to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus and reminder that the best protection from getting the flu and transmitting it is through the annual flu shot.
As they observed their information release, the current situation at the Prince Rupert hospital is a result of the regular seasonal flu and does not have anything to do with the reports of the coronavirus outbreak in China and now being reported around the world.
The latest notes from British Columbia health officials on the Novel Coronavirus outbreak see our archive page here.
For more notes of interest from Northern Health see our archive page here.
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