Ontario hospitals gear up for growing pressure from Omicron
William Osler Health System declared a Code Orange on Sunday due to a lack of resources
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Contingency plans are being developed to ensure the continuation of hospital operations during the Omicron wave, Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) President and CEO Anthony Dale says.
The OHA is working with hospitals across the province to assess the state of health human resources due to widespread community transmission, he said.
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Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore directed hospitals to begin winding down all elective and non-urgent activities as of Wednesday, he said.
“Ramping down elective surgeries will have a significant long-term impact on thousands of patients waiting for care, as elective surgeries include life-saving surgeries and those that dramatically enhance quality of life,” Dale said in a statement Tuesday. “These are not trade-offs any of us wanted to make, but they are necessary now to protect hospital system capacity and health human resources.”
More than 10% of hospitals had not submitted data to the daily bed census Tuesday, but those that did reported a total of 1,290 COVID-19 patients including 266 in intensive care and 128 on ventilators.
In addition to the number of patients, many hospitals are reporting significant numbers of staff isolating due to COVID-19, including William Osler Health System, which declared a Code Orange on Monday, meaning demand was outpacing the hospital’s ability to deploy its resources efficiently.
Premier Doug Ford told Ontarians this week that the Omicron variant, although less lethal than the Delta variant, still threatened to overwhelm hospital resources.
The government has ordered the province back to a modified Step Two of its reopening plan Wednesday, limiting social gatherings, pausing indoor restaurant dining and closing gyms.
There were 109 additional cases of COVID-19 in nursing home residents and 40 cases in staff reported Tuesday.
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Two more deaths of long-term care residents were blamed on COVID-19, and a total of 5,984 deaths in individuals aged 80 and older are linked to the pandemic.
The number of daily COVID-19 cases has been dropping since hitting a record high of 18,445 on New Year’s Eve.
Ontario reported on Tuesday that there had been 11,352 new cases and 10 deaths Monday, 13,578 new cases and six deaths Sunday and 16,714 new cases and 16 deaths Saturday.
However, public health officials say the daily new cases data does not accurately reflect the impact of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant which they believe is spreading widely in communities across the province.
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