Toronto: Children’s hospitals caring for adults. All but emergency medical services cancelled. Patients transferred from overrun intensive care units to sites hundreds of miles away, sometimes without their consent.
Severely strained hospitals in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, are undertaking unprecedented measures to cope as a variant-drive resurgence of the coronavirus tears through much of the country.
There were a record 851 adult patients with coronavirus-related critical illnesses in Ontario ICUs on Sunday, up 156% from a month ago, according to the provincial Health Ministry. Nearly 600 were on ventilators.
But critical-care physicians say those numbers don’t fully capture the number of severely ill COVID-19 patients. ICUs are so taxed that many patients who would normally be treated in one, including those on high-flow oxygen, are being cared for in hospital wards.
Canada coronavirus: Ontario hospitals under strain, and Doug Ford under siege washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Posted: Apr 23, 2021 8:59 AM ET | Last Updated: April 23
Health-care workers prepare to test passengers as they arrive at Toronto s Pearson airport in this Feb. 1, 2021 photo after mandatory COVID-19 testing took effect for international arrivals. Public Health Ontario said Friday it has detected 36 cases of the B1617 variant first identified in India. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)
Ontario transfers dozens more COVID-19 patients as GTA ICUs buckle under 3rd wave
Ontario hospitals have transferred another 26 COVD-19 patients from intensive care units struggling to cope with the surging third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social Sharing
CBC News ·
Posted: Apr 24, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 24
Paramedics with Ornge ambulance service load a patient outside Scarborough General Hospital on April 8, 2021.(Evan Mitsui/CBC)