Alberta plans to double number of ventilators for pandemic peak

Alberta is working on multiple fronts to ensure it has an excess of ventilators when COVID 19 peaks, Premier Jason Kenney said Wednesday.

Alberta currently has 324 ventilators. About 115 of those are in use including 15 by patients with COVID-19.

At the peak of hospitalizations in late May or earlyJune, Kenney said 230 ventilators will be needed, according to projections of the best-case scenario. The need nearly doubles to 400 under a less likely, elevated model.

Either way, Kenney said Alberta will be ready.

"We plan to increase the number of ventilators available for COVID specifically to 761 ventilators by the end of this month," Kenney said. "We're aggressively pursuing procurement both overseas and domestically."

• Alberta COVID-19 hospitalizations will peak in late May, province says

To do that, there are severalmeasures being pursued by Alberta Health Services.

The province has borrowed24 ventilatorsfrom the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, sixfrom STARSair ambulance and another 30 from private surgical facilities contracted by the Alberta health-care system.

Kenney said a team at the University of Calgary is developing a prototype for a ventilator that will be produced by an Edmonton company.

"So we are confident that we'll be seeing more ventilators come on market in the weeks and months to come," Kenney said. "In the worst case scenario that we're now planning for we would have well over 300 ventilators in excess capacity."

To ensure there will be enough personnel qualified to operate the ventilators, the province is redeploying staff and accelerating training.

Kenney suggested that if the province ends up with extra ventilators, Alberta could lend some to other parts of the country.

"We're all in this together as Canadians," he said.