WINNIPEG - The Canadian Armed Forces arrive in Manitoba today, as a spike in new COVID-19 cases continues to hammer the province’s health care system, with members of the air force transporting COVID-19 patients to wherever they can receive care, and other military staff working in Manitoba hospitals and labs.
The provincial government requested the assistance last Friday, while Manitoba was reporting the highest per capital rate of daily new cases in the country.
Staff at Manitoba ICUs are saying they’re out of beds, and more than 20 patients have been transferred to Ontario so far, with Saskatchewan offering further help to take additional patients as needed. The identity of one patient with COVID-19 who died after an attempt to airlift her to an Ontario hospital was released recently. 31-year-old Krystal Mousseau, from Ebb and Flow First Nation, died on Monday in Brandon. She was the mother of two children.
The military’s four-week mission will see personnel working as critical care nurses and lab technicians. The Canadian Forces will reassess the COVID-19 situation in Manitoba on June 25, and then decide if military intervention is still needed.
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