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COVID-19 has made its way into the staff of Medavie Health Services West in Saskatoon.
The emergency medical service handles all ambulance duties within Saskatoon. Its director of public affairs, Troy Davies, told 650 CKOM that a dozen paramedics have been infected.
“We had one paramedic on the crew that tested positive, and that just kind of went through the whole crew,” Davies said. “We were able to pretty much limit it to one crew, which ended up being 12 paramedics (testing positive) and an additional three paramedics isolated.”
Those 12 cases are all still active. The Saskatchewan Health Authority declared an outbreak at the workplace on the crew level on Dec. 22.
Davies said luckily, Medavie was able to catch the first infection in time before it potentially spread to the other three crews.
He said staff backfilled shifts over the holidays. All paramedics have continued to wear proper personal protective equipment through the pandemic, according to Davies. He added that Medavie’s staff members who currently have COVID will likely be back to work following isolation in just over a week.
In terms of stress, Davies said the members are feeling it as the pandemic continues.
“There is stress levels there, absolutely. They’re going home to their loved ones (and) they’re worried about their families. They’ve had to isolate over the Christmas holidays to not even see their own kids. (Stress) is at an all-time high. It’s something that we’ve never experienced and we hopefully will never experience again,” he said.
If mental health issues arise in members, Davies said the corporation does have confidential systems in place to help them out.
He added staff members have also started receiving COVID vaccinations at Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon.
