Elective surgeries rescheduled in Kelowna because of Central Okanagan COVID-19 outbreak

While Interior Health is not releasing much information, the COVID-19 outbreak in the Central Okanagan is putting a strain on staff at Kelowna's hospital.

“Kelowna General Hospital is currently supporting a higher number of COVID-19 positive patients due to the Central Okanagan outbreak,” Interior Health said in an email to iNFOnews.ca. “Some elective surgeries have been rescheduled to manage capacity at the hospital.”

It did not say how many surgeries were rescheduled or how many COVID patients are in the hospital.

A social media posting by a Kelowna oncologist yesterday said one of his patients had a whipple procedure – also known as a pancreaticoduodenectomy – cancelled because of a lack of beds. That procedure treats tumours and other disorders of the pancreas, intestine and bile duct.

“Our hospital is swamped with COVID patients, almost entirely unvaccinated,” he wrote. He did not want to comment directly to iNFOnews.ca.

As of yesterday, Aug. 9, there were 27 Interior Health residents in hospital with the virus and of those 10 were in intensive care, according the B.C. Centre to Disease Control’s website.

Interior Health would not say how many of those are in Kelowna General but more than half of the COVID cases in the region have been in the Central Okanagan.

There were 1,755 active cases in the region yesterday, more that 50 per cent of all cases in B.C., and there was an average of 196 new cases reported in the region over the weekend.

“The majority of people in hospital with COVID-19 are young adults who are not fully immunized,” Interior Health said in its email. “The hospital is safe for appointments or emergency care. Please continue with any scheduled procedures.”

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