Sudbury hospital sees record number of admitted COVID-19 patients
CBC
Health Sciences North is reporting the highest number of admitted patients due to COVID-19 since the pandemic started.
On Friday, the hospital reported 49 admitted patients with COVID-19, including three in the ICU.
"That's the highest number we've seen," said hospital president and CEO Dominic Giroux.
"Things have definitely changed dramatically over the last three weeks. On Christmas, we had eight COVID hospitalizations."
Giroux said the hospital has ramped down surgical capacity to free up beds and to move staff to other departments in the hospital.
He said most admitted patients with COVID share one thing in common.
"Generally, most of them are unvaccinated, unfortunately, especially for patients admitted to ICU," he said.
"Thankfully what we're seeing in this wave of the pandemic is vaccines are effective."
He said there are currently 142 employees who either have COVID-19 or are self-isolating, representing three per cent of the hospital's workforce.
"We're not out of the woods," he said. "We're just preparing to see further increases in hospitalizations in the next few days and weeks."
On Friday, the Timiskaming Health Unit reported five people hospitalized due to COVID-19, while Algoma Public Health said there were nine people in hospital. The North Bay-Parry Sound Health Unit said three people are hospitalized.
As of last week, the Timmins and District Hospital reported 13 admitted patients.