Week 30 of COVID-19 pandemic life sees GTA hospitals close to capacity
Posted October 5, 2020 6:28 am.
Last Updated October 5, 2020 9:36 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s week 30 of pandemic life in this province, and with the second wave of COVID-19 here, some GTA hospitals are close to capacity and urging the province to do more to stop the community spread of the virus.
This comes as COVID-19 testing moves to appointment only this week.
With Ontario recording 500 or more new cases of COVID-19 a day, the growing curve upward is raising serious concerns at hospitals in Toronto and Peel Region.
The Ontario Hospital Association tells the Toronto Star that some hospitals are already running at 90 per cent capacity, and they’re seeing huge demand on emergency department services.
Health experts say this situation is not sustainable, especially when you consider we still haven’t seen full demand, because still to come is flu season combined with the pandemic response.
The association says more public health measures are going to be needed to curb the rising spread of COVID-19.
Read that as potential further lockdown situations and restrictions on businesses.
Anyone hoping to get tested for COVID-19 at an assessment centre on Monday will not see it happen.
The Ministry of Health paused its walk-in testing at the centres on Sunday. It wants to catch up on a backlog of 79,000 untested swabs.
When the centres reopen on Tuesday, the tests will be by appointment only for those exhibiting symptoms, which some public health experts say going forward, will cause some instability in the numbers simply because it could artificially cause those numbers to appear to drop.
That’s because with appointment only, there’s a very good chance fewer people will be tested going forward.
