Hospitalizations top 100 in Waterloo region, medical officer urges people to get vaccinated
CBC
There were 107 people with COVID-19 in Waterloo region's three hospitals on Tuesday, the Ontario region's public health unit reported.
Fourteen people were in the intensive care unit. The region noted ICU patients may no longer be infectious, but require ongoing care.
Hospitals in Waterloo region and Guelph "are near or past capacity," said Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener and the Waterloo-Wellington hospital regional lead for the COVID-19 response.
In an update on Tuesday, Fairclough noted that a quarter of patients in hospital care are under the age of 60 "and many are unvaccinated."
As well, she noted more than 500 staff across the hospitals have been impacted by COVID and cannot work.
"This is impacting our ability to provide care," Fairclough said.
"Omicron demands that [we] use every measure that we can to protect everyone," she said in the release, asking people to get vaccinated, wear a high-quality mask, stay home if sick and reduce social contacts.
"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," she said.
One new death, a woman in her 50s, was reported, bringing the total number of COVID-19-related deaths in the region to 320.
There were 487 new cases reported Tuesday, considered to be lower than the actual number of cases because not everyone is eligible for COVID-19 testing.
In the region, there were 60, 31 of them in long-term care and retirement homes.
The region is no longer reporting outbreaks in workplaces, facilities, child care settings, post-secondary institutions or schools.
People who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 are at a higher risk of hospitalization and ICU admission than those who have received even two doses, said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Region of Waterloo's medical officer of health.
"A booster or third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine further protects against severe complications of Omicron," a prevalent COVID-19 variant, Wang said Tuesday while presenting a chart from the Ontario Science Table to regional councillors during a committee of the whole meeting.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.