Waterloo Region hospitals running short on beds due to COVID-19 Omicron variant
Global News
'So right now at CMH, we're at 97 per cent occupied,' CMH president Patrick Gaskin said. 'We have six available beds to serve our community, and only one of those is an ICU bed.'
There are just a handful of empty beds at the three major hospitals in Waterloo Region, according to those in charge of the local institutions, which are feeling the crush of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
“The number of COVID-related admissions has jumped dramatically. Actually, just overnight last night, it changed from 129 to 153 patients hospitalized with COVID,” said Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener.
She was joined by the heads of Kitchener’s Grand River Hospital and Cambridge Memorial Hospital on the region’s weekly COVID-19 update and said they are running out of beds.
“So right now at CMH, we’re at 97 per cent occupied,” CMH president Patrick Gaskin said. “That means we have six available beds to serve our community, and only one of those is an ICU bed.”
He went on to say there are 30 patients at the hospital battling COVID-19, a number that has doubled over the past week or so.
“According to the information I looked at at the Ontario Science Table, hospital COVID cases are doubling every eight days, meaning next Saturday, our 30 could become 60,” he noted.
“Keep in mind, we only have six beds today, only one which is in the ICU.”
It is a similar story at Grand River Hospital, where they only have 12 empty beds as of Friday morning, according to president Ron Gagnon. And across the city at St. Mary’s General Hospital, they are at full capacity, according to Fairclough.