More changes are underway in B.C. in response to the COVID-19 crisis. On Monday, March 30, B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix announced that 19 major hospitals in the province are now strictly dedicated to patients infected with COVID-19. He also revealed that 106 individuals with the disease have now been admitted to intensive care. As part of the daily briefings about COVID-19 in B.C., Dix updated the public on the province hospitals' capabilities to take care of patients being treated for COVID-19. He said that on Friday, March 27, 17 hospital sites had been set aside purely for individuals suffering from COVID-19 complications. Two more have now been added. "We designated these 19 major hospital sites across the province to deliver care to the most critically ill patients and to maximize capacity," he added. The hospital sites include: Abbotsford Regional Hospital Royal Columbian Hospital Surrey Memorial Hospital Kelowna General Hospital Royal Inland Hospital Vernon Jubilee Hospital Penticton Regional Hospital Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital East Kootenay Regional Hospital B.C. Children's Hospital B.C. Women's Hospital Lionsgate Hospital Richmond Hospital St. Paul's Hospital Vancouver General Hospital The Royal Jubilee Hospital Victoria General Hospital Nanaimo Regional General Hospital Dix clarified that the number of hospital sites has been decided based on models that the B.C. government has been using to evaluate and measure the ongoing public health crisis. This hospital site allocation has been determined based on the "most pessimistic of the models." All the health authorities, including Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health, will also be preparing off-site treatment centres. In the coming days, the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre and the new tower at the Royal Columbian Hospital will also be turned into off-site centres. The Convention Centre will have 271 beds whereas the tower at Royal Columbian will have 80 beds. The health authorities will potentially be giving tours of these impromptu COVID-19 treatment sites soon, said Dix. "Even though we have 4,233 beds empty, we are also preparing additional beds for having a place for lower acuity or less ill patients to go to," he continued in the press conference. B.C. is also suspending paid parking for patients, staff and visitors for all facilities owned and operated by B.C. health authorities. This will be effective from April 1 and will continue until further notice. This measure is being implemented to stop people from touching screens and buttons at payment kiosks. However, he mentioned that health care workers that pay for parking through their paychecks will not be able to make use of this new measure.
