Field hospital outside Sunnybrook will help battle potential 3rd wave

As Ontario continues on a path towards a seemingly inevitable third wave of COVID-19 infections, health officials and doctors are bracing for another spike in cases.

A parking lot outside Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto is currently being converted into a mobile health unit.

The Ministry of Health confirms to 680 NEWS that the unit will allow for a flexible response as another potential pandemic surge looms for the province and the city. They say it will help ensure that resources such as intensive care remain available for those who may need it.

“Our government, in partnership with the federal government, continues to plan, prepare, and take the necessary actions to protect the health and safety of Ontarians during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says a spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The province says that the mobile hospital will be ready for use by early April should the additional support be required.

Sunnybrook says they began to make room for the mobile unit in February and it will have 84 available beds but can be expanded to 100 if there is need.

Instead of one giant tent, the unit is separated into a group of smaller tents. The hospital says each ‘pod’ will have the capacity for 8 to 10 patients and will be equipped with necessary support systems and washrooms.

“In the event of an increase in the demand for beds, we expect the facility will most likely be used to provide space for patients who are awaiting placement in other facilities,” said at a statement from the hospital.

This “will free up acute and critical care beds in the hospital.”

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The mobile unit is potentially the first of two in the Greater Toronto Area promised by the federal government earlier this year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared on Jan. 22 that Ottawa will send two mobile health units to the GTA.

“This will provide up to 200 additional hospital beds and free up space for people who need ICU care,” Trudeau said.

While hospitalizations are still down significantly in the province from the peak of the third wave in mid-January, the numbers have levelled off in the past month after a steep decline.

According to the latest provincial numbers, there are 689 COVID patients hospitalized in the province and 290 are in the ICU.

In a briefing on Monday, Toronto’s chief medical officer said almost 40 per cent of reported cases in the city have screened positive for a more contagious varant of concern.

De Villa says she worries about the potential effect of variants on vaccines, saying that though the treatments are powerful and are confident they can be adapted to counter variants, we can’t concede.

“They [the vaccines] are not without challenge,” said de Villa. “…We must absolutely play our part. We cannot take the promise of vaccines for granted.”

Rosalind Eggo, an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, says she and her team conducted a new and recent study on mortality of B.1.1.7 using health records from England.

What they found was that the variant of concern was approximately 1.67-times more likely to result in death, controlling for comorbidities, age, week, region, and other sociodemographics.

Ontario’s first field hospital built during the pandemic began taking patients in early January.

The facility in Burlington was built on the grounds of Joseph Brant Hospital in April as part of the hospital network’s capacity plan.