The group representing Ontario's hospitals is calling on the province to do more to avoid a "devastating surge" in COVID-19 patients needing hospital care in the new year.
The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) released a statement on Thursday, calling for a four-week, robustly enforced lockdown in regions that are seeing COVID-19 infection rates of 40 per 100,000 or higher. That could include London and Middlesex County and Windsor-Essex. Windsor is already in the Grey-Lockdown level of Ontario's COVID-19 Response Framework, while London and Middlesex County are in the Red-Control level.
"This is in keeping with the criteria laid out in the government's COVID-19 Response Framework, and is necessary to protect the health and safety of the people of Ontario and to ensure that hospitals do not face a devastating surge in COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization and intensive care in January," the OHA said in the statement. "In the remaining public health units, the government must give priority to the reproduction rate and test positivity trends, in addition to the infection rate, when determining whether additional public health measures may be required. Finally, we also recommend that the grey lockdown zone of the province's framework be rapidly re-evaluated by independent public health and epidemiological experts to determine if additional, stricter provisions are necessary."
The OHA says hospitals are still trying to catch up with a backlog of surgeries that were postponed during the first wave of the pandemic. It added, with the second wave growing stronger, hospitalizations are rapidly increasing and an increasing number of intensive care unit beds are being occupied. While it says the average duration of stay in hospital by COVID-19 patients has shrunk, hospitals are seeing more patients and that is placing a burden on both hospitals and those who care for the patients.
"They are mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted, but because of their calling, they carry on," the OHA said of health care workers in the province.
The OHA is also urging the public to "remain steadfast" in the fight against COVID-19, saying that if people choose to ignore public health measures and get together with friends and family over the holidays, hospitals could be overwhelmed. While the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine is providing some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the OHA is reminding people that we're far from being out of the woods.
"...the last stretch of a marathon is the hardest. We must deal with today's crisis by bending the pandemic curve so that the vaccination program can proceed as quickly and effectively as possible," it said.
The OHA says a four-week lockdown in these areas would require that governments provide more financial support to businesses that are suffering, implement programs like paid sick leave and isolation accomodation for people who aren't financially able to avoid working outside the home. It also said the province must do everything possible to make sure that schools are the last organizations to close.
