Canada virus hotspot Manitoba flies patients out as infections surge

By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -Canada’s latest COVID-19 hotspot of Manitoba said on Tuesday it was planning to fly additional critically ill patients to other provinces as infections multiply, even as Quebec and British Columbia announced plans to ease restrictions.

A third wave reached Manitoba later than other provinces, and pushed up its rate of daily cases to 233 people per 100,000 during the past week, the highest in Canada and triple the national average, mainly due to spread in the city of Winnipeg.

Manitoba has flown 18 critically ill COVID-19 patients to Ontario hospitals in the past few days, officials said. The provincial government is also talking with Saskatchewan and North Dakota officials about receiving patients, they said in a briefing, without providing a number.

No other province has taken such steps.

The province has scrambled to more than double its intensive care unit capacity by cancelling surgeries and occupying other spaces in hospitals.

“Our hospitals are being stretched to the limits right now,” Chief Provincial Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said. “There are hundreds of people struggling for their lives.”

A group of doctors urged the Manitoba government to impose a stay-at-home order and close non-essential businesses.

More than 25,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Canada since the pandemic began.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was looking at sending medical staff to Manitoba through the Canadian Red Cross and other support from the Canadian Armed Forces.

Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, will continue to ease restrictions and by June 7 all restaurants and gyms will be able to reopen, Premier Francois Legault said.

The Pacific coast province of British Columbia laid out its four-part reopening plan on Tuesday, with some restrictions being lifted immediately and a full reopening anticipated by September, Premier John Horgan said.

Limited indoor and outdoor dining with a maximum of six people, indoor gatherings of up to five people from outside a household and low-intensity fitness classes are now permitted, Horgan said.

The province expects to lift all group limits on indoor dining and reopen casinos and nightclubs with limited capacity on July 1.

Ontario, Canada’s most-populous province, plans to loosen restrictions starting June 14.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Moira Warburton in Toronto; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Cynthia Osterman)

Canada’s oil sands region becomes country’s COVID-19 hotspot

By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada’s remote oil sands region in northern Alberta has become a COVID-19 hotspot, disrupting essential annual maintenance work at its massive oil sands plants.

The oil-rich province of Alberta is battling the highest rate of COVID-19 in Canada as the country grapples with a third wave of the pandemic, and on Thursday hit a record for new daily infections, topping 2,000 a day for the first time. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, home to the oil sands, has the highest rate of active cases per capita in the province.

Maintenance work is critical for production from Canada’s oil sands, which hold the world’s third-largest crude reserves and produce 3.1 million barrels per day, accounting for roughly three-quarters of the country’s total output.

Twelve oil sands plants including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s Horizon and the Suncor Energy-owned Syncrude project are tackling outbreaks while in the middle of annual maintenance projects that require flying in extra workers from as far away as Atlantic Canada.

In total, there are 822 active cases at oil sands sites, according to Alberta Health. One worker has died.

Suncor has pushed back the maintenance turnaround on the U2 upgrader at its base plant site by at least a month to see if infections subside, said Terry Parker, executive director of the Building Trades of Alberta, representing 18 local unions.

“It’s a very stressful situation right now that they are facing,” Parker said, adding some workers were leaving the oil sands because of fears about becoming infected. “The owners are taking the precautions necessary, and we are still contracting this disease.”

A Suncor spokeswoman said the company is making minor adjustments to pre-work and day-to-day activities, but it remains on track with its planned maintenance.

CNRL, Suncor and Syncrude said COVID-19 safety protocols are in place. They have implemented rapid testing and isolation camps in a bid to slow the COVID-19 surge.

One contractor at CNRL’s Horizon plant, which has 328 active cases, the highest among the oil sands sites, said workers are tested every four days but that seemed to be having little impact on the outbreak.

“You have 8,000 people on site for four weeks, it’s going to be a thing,” he said, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak to media.

Indigenous leaders this week called for stricter measures to control the spread of the virus and accused Alberta Premier Jason Kenney of “prioritizing profits over lives” by allowing infected workers to come to the region.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labor, called on Kenney to shut down work sites with outbreaks across the province, including the oil sands, to get the virus under control.

“This is a recipe for needless infection and needless deaths,” McGowan told Reuters.

Alberta has more than 21,000 active COVID-19 cases, including 632 people in hospital.

(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Christopher Cushing)