Canada: Ontario sees second-highest Covid single-day spike with 4,401 new infections
Ontario/IBNS: Ontario has been hit hard by 4,401 fresh cases of Covid-19, the second-highest single-day spike in the province despite public health units having logged a 9.5 per cent test positivity rate, one of the highest in the Canadian district.
Of the 4,031,325 doses, received from the federal government, Ontario has now used about 80 per cent to date.
According to Ontario's Ministry of Health, as of Monday, out of 1,646 people hospitalised with Covid-19, 619 are being treated in ICUs for virus-related illness, while 408 are on ventilators. Both figures are new pandemic highs for Ontario.
To increase capacity for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, hospitals have started as of Monday to ramp down elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures.
Last week Ontario's Health Minister Christine Elliott said that ramping down elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures could increase intensive-care unit capacity in Ontario by up to 1,000 patient beds.
Although hospitals in northern Ontario are exempt from cancelling non-urgent procedures, a memo from Ontario Health was issued on Thursday night that said they should prepare to ramp down quickly in the near future.
Hospitals were also asked, according to the memo, to identify staff who may be redeployed to other sites if necessary.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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