‘We should be peaking soon’: Ottawa doctor says worst of the sixth wave should be over soon
As a surging sixth wave of COVID-19 looks to level off, there are warnings of a difficult week ahead for Ontario hospitals.
The province’s medical experts anticipate seeing more critical cases of the virus that could start filling up beds in the ICU before numbers start to come back down.
Ontario health officials say it’s expected that the province will hit the sixth wave peak very soon.
“You do see an increase in hospitalizations which is around 7 to 10 days, after you see an increase in cases,” said Zahid Butt, an epidemiologist.
Optimism is now on the horizon in Ottawa, for cases to soon level off.
“We should be peaking soon, if not already,” said Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, a critical care and palliative doctor at the Ottawa Hospital. “When it comes to volume of admissions for COVID patients, it’s no where near where it’s been for previous waves.”
Cases remain stable in the nation’s capital, where staffing in hospitals remains the biggest challenge.
“With the high community spread, health care providers are becoming positive and the isolation period are longer for health care providers, which is up to 10 days,” said Dr. Kyeremanteng.
That crunch is also felt at Montfort Hospital, where 69 staff members were isolating because of COVID as of Thursday. The staffing challenge is causing non-emergency surgery delays.
“Community transmission also translates to transmission amongst health care workers and this means that we have more health care workers knocked out from COVID and this is on top of already considerable burn out,” said Dr. Peter Juni, Scientific Director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Kyeremanteng said from a physician’s point of view, it means a lot of back up schedules as the hospital adjusts to staff member absences.
Meanwhile, officials say admissions for COVID patients during the sixth wave is no where near the numbers from previous waves of the pandemic.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Ottawa pizzeria places among top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world at international competition
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Canada Post cracks down on Nunavut loophole to get free Amazon Prime shipping
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
Wildfire near Fort McMurray more than triples overnight, several evacuation alerts remain in place
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Putin replaces Russian defence minister in rare cabinet shakeup
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Man fatally 'slashed in the neck' in downtown Toronto, suspect outstanding
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
WATCH Dashcam video shows terrifying near-miss on two-lane northern Ontario highway
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Edibles, armchairs and adapters: Here are the recalls for this week
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.