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OTTAWA – The tense and often terrifying year 2020 may be over, but experts warn that the dawn of a new one does not leave behind the problems caused by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patients at multiple Canadian access points are flooding hospitals at an alarming rate and are expected to arrive in even greater numbers in the coming weeks, doctors and health centers said Friday.
“If these rates of increase continue as they are, the months of January and February will be absolutely brutal. It’s just a matter of how brutal it will be,” said Anthony Dale, director of the Ontario Hospital Association.
One fifth of the province’s intensive care capacity is now dedicated to COVID-19 patients, with Toronto and the Peel, York and Windsor-Essex regions being the hardest hit.
Dale said 45 of the 149 COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care in Ontario last week have died.
“We will see an accelerating number of unnecessary deaths, more people dying. We will see more people suffering in intensive care and in hospitals,” he said, calling the situation “totally unsustainable.”
The increase could jeopardize elective surgeries and other care. Some hospitals have already started canceling procedures, adding to the delay created after 160,000 were canceled in the first wave, he added.
“Even though COVID continues, people still have cancer, they still have heart disease, they still need organ transplants.”
He said the pandemic has led to staff shortages at numerous hospitals, with some frontline workers reassigned to testing centers, laboratories and long-term care homes.
Hospitals in the Montreal metropolitan area are on track to exceed capacity in the next three weeks, with nearly two-thirds of designated beds for coronavirus patients already occupied, according to a report by INESSS, a government-funded health institute. .
“Unfortunately, if the trend continues, this will have to be offset in particular by the further elimination of non-COVID treatments in our hospitals,” Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said in a French Twitter post on Thursday.
However, the projection did not take into account the closure of all non-essential businesses in the province by Prime Minister Francois Legault from December 25 to January 11, which could help stem the spread, said Dr. Luc Boileau, who runs the institute.
“The good news behind all of this is the arrival of vaccines,” Boileau said. “The impact of this will manifest itself in outbreaks within the health services and, of course, in the reduction of mortality.”
Nearly 500,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires ultra-cold storage, have been distributed across Canada since Health Canada approved it on December 9.
The Moderna vaccine, which received the green light on December 23, also began to roll off the tarmacs, beginning to reach remote communities and First Nations over the past week. Its storage temperatures of -20 C facilitate administration compared to the -70 C required for the Pfizer vaccine.
The country is not yet clear.
People should make sensible decisions about social distancing and stay home, said Tim Sly, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at Ryerson University School of Public Health.
“We keep seeing airhead parties of seven to 14 or 25 people, delirious without masks, with a lot of alcohol and drink and hugs and kisses, etc.,” Sly said. “That is avoidable.”
Public officials are not above making dubious travel decisions, with several prominent politicians receiving criticism for vacation travel despite public health guidelines for staying home.
On Friday night, the federal NDP issued a statement saying that MP Niki Ashton traveled to Greece to see a sick family member and consequently would be relieved of her shadow cabinet duties, which include transportation.
“While we sympathize with Ms. Ashton’s situation and understand her need to be with her family, millions of Canadians are following public health guidelines, even when it was impossible for them to visit sick or elderly relatives,” the party said.
Previously, Rod Phillips resigned as Ontario Finance Minister after shortening a Caribbean vacation, while Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard came under fire for a getaway to Hawaii from Dec. 19-31.
Surgeries typically increase after a winter break break, but now more could be shelved due to the ripple effects of rule breaking, said Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious disease physician at the hospital. St. Joseph at Hamilton and associate professor at McMaster. College.
“If there are no beds to put those patients in afterwards, unfortunately those surgeries are just canceled,” he said.
St. Joseph’s opened a satellite site at a renovated hotel, transferring dozens of patients to the renovated facility to keep the main health center’s occupancy rate below 90 percent to handle the expected increase.
“We are filled to the brim,” Chagla said.
“I have patients who did not have COVID but they had horrible results because … they were unable to access care the way they should,” he added, recalling the first wave.
“I’m very concerned that those people will come back in the next three or four months, that we will see a sequel of people who have missed the diagnosis of cancer or infections that needed to be treated before.
“It’s a lot of tension in a system that is already tense,” he said.
Canada’s two largest provinces reported new all-time highs for COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
Ontario reported 3,328 new cases and 56 more deaths related to the virus, which matches the highest number of deaths from the first wave. In Quebec, there were 2,819 new cases and 62 deaths.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said Thursday that more than 720 hospitalized patients with the virus are receiving ICU treatment, including 337 in Ontario and 165 in Quebec.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on January 1, 2021.
