Waterloo Wellington Hospital Capacity Report (Omicron Wave) - January 11, 2022
Waterloo Region & Wellington County | January 11, 2022 – Attached is the Waterloo Wellington COVID Report for Tuesday, January 11, 2022 that local hospitals have committed to jointly providing on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Today’s report also includes emergency department (ED) visit data and trends, as well as vaccination status of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. We continue to see rapid increases in the number of patients in care who are COVID-positive reporting 126 patients across our hospitals.
As always, please reach out should you require any clarification or have further questions for a local lens on our community’s current situation in this next phase of the pandemic.
“We continue to exhaust every option and make every effort to increase our capacity as a local system to care for more patients. Despite adding more beds, hiring additional staff and last week, suspending non-urgent and non-emergent services, our hospitals are near or past capacity. The numbers are climbing at a rapid pace – increasing from 95 to 126 patients with COVID in our hospitals. AT a time when hospital occupancy is between 90-99%. With Omicron, a quarter of patients in our care are under the age of 60 and many are unvaccinated.
“Given the changes in who is eligible to be tested and that anyone with COVID related symptoms is being directed to isolate at home, daily case numbers are no longer a main measure for the pandemic. The measures in this report give a larger picture of what we’re seeing in terms of occupancy and activity at the hospital including the increased visits over pre-pandemic numbers in emergency departments. Even with net new beds that have been opened in the region, today we are challenged to see more patients with less staff. Over 500 staff across our hospitals are impacted by COVID and not able to come to work. This is impacting our ability to provide care. In addition to our own hospitalization numbers, are the other indicators reported in the Region of Waterloo’s COVID-19 Wastewater Surveillance that confirms the rapid transmissibility and sheer volume of positive cases in our community. This is reflective of what we are experiencing in our hospitals in our patients and our staff which only tells us that we are in for some rough weeks ahead.
“Especially as children head back to school next week, Omicron demands that use every measure that we can to protect everyone. Please, get vaccinated, wear a high-quality mask, reduce your contacts whenever possible and stay home and isolate if you experience any symptoms associated with COVID. We are at a very critical point right now and our actions today and over the next few weeks will make all the difference in our ability to get through this together.”
- Lee Fairclough, president, St. Mary’s General Hospital and Waterloo Wellington hospital regional lead, COVID-19 response.
- 30 –
More Information:
Alison Armstrong
Manager, Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Wellington Health Care Alliance
Groves Memorial Community Hospital
North Wellington Health Care
aarmstrong@whca.ca
519-843-2010 ext. 47614
Stephan Beckhoff
Manager, Public Affairs & Communications
Cambridge Memorial Hospital
sbeckhoff@cmh.org
t: 519-621-2333 ext. 2427
m: 519-654-8334
Cheryl Evans
Manager, Communications and Engagement
Grand River Hospital
cheryl.evans@grhosp.on.ca
t: 519-749-4300 ext. 3880
m: 226-749-0689
Perry Hagerman
Senior Communications Specialist
Guelph General Hospital
PHagerman@gghorg.ca
519-837-6440 ext. 2774
Dayna Giorgio
Manager, Communications
St. Mary’s General Hospital
dgiorgio@smgh.ca
519-895-6540