34 cases screened positive for variants of concern Sault Area Hospital (SAH) confirmed Tuesday that one COVID-19 positive patient from the Greater Toronto Area will be admitted this week. The hospital is preparing to receive one to two patients a day, depending on critical care capacity in our hospital. The release states that patients transferred to the local hospital could be patients with COVID-19 or without COVID-19. Additionally, the local hospital is ramping down on non-urgent and non-emergent surgeries. On Tuesday, a directive was issued by chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams, which meant Northern Ontario hospitals are no longer exempt from the directive to cancel all non-urgent surgeries, in order to clear space for a potential influx of COVID-19 patients.