Hospitals in Canada’s most populous province cancel operations, relocate patients and prepare for the potential need for rationing as they experience an increase in Covid-19 variants that are putting more pressure on Ontario’s healthcare system than ever before in recent history.
As of Monday, the number of adult Covid-19 patients in beds with intensive care units had increased by 44% from the beginning of the month to 623, according to data compiled by Critical Care Services Ontario. About two-thirds of the patients were on ventilators. Previously, the number of Covid-19 patients in critical care beds peaked at 415 in mid-January.
“It really is the battle of a lifetime,” said Anthony Dale, head of the Ontario Hospital Association, an advocacy group for 141 hospitals operating in the province. “I’m pretty scared of what the next few weeks will look like.”
The situation in Ontario, where nearly 40% of the Canadian population lives, is in contrast to the situation in many U.S. states, where vaccinations have been applied more quickly. Canada’s seven-day average confirmed Covid-19 cases recently obscured the US per capita base for the first time since the early days of the pandemic. Hospitals in neighboring states of New York and Michigan are also seeing increasing Covid-19 hospitalizations, but are under less pressure compared to infection waves in the past.
The predicament in Canada is due to an increase in new cases of the highly contagious variant in the UK, coupled with a slow explosion of the vaccine. The problem is the low number of acute hospital beds in the province that has remained stable over the past two decades despite a growing population.