Ontario prepared Monday to receive medical support from the military as the province reached grim new milestones in COVID-19 hospitalizations and spread.
Posted Apr 27, 2021, 05:20AM EDT
Ontario prepared Monday to receive medical support from the military as the province reached grim new milestones in COVID-19 hospitalizations and spread.
A senior federal official said Ottawa would provide military medical personnel to help Ontario’s overburdened health-care system, much as it did last spring during the pandemic’s first wave.
Up to three multi-purpose medical assistance teams are preparing to deploy. They are composed of nursing officers and medical technicians, as well as additional CAF members for general duty support as applicable.
The teams will be rotated in and out of the province rather than deployed simultaneously to ensure that CAF support is sustainable.
Work is underway to complete on-the-ground assessments, which will determine the exact number of military personnel deployed to Ontario.
The federal government will also fund the redeployment of the Red Cross to augment or relieve staff within medical care facilities.
The military will also be providing airlift for medical personnel from Newfoundland and Labrador and possibly other jurisdictions to go to Ontario.
The move comes after the province said it made a formal request for assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Red Cross.
“What we are looking for is very specialized nurses that can help out in our intensive care unit beds and medical personnel that can assist our hospitals that are seeing disturbing rises in cases of COVID-19,” Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said.
Hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units have been breaking records in recent weeks, and public health officials said Monday both were once again at their highest since the start of the pandemic.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the province’s associate chief medical officer of health, said Ontario also reported its highest positivity rate, at 10.9 per cent, on Monday.
The province said 2,271 people were in hospital with COVID-19, but noted that more than 10 per cent of hospitals did not submit data over the weekend and that the tally would likely go up.
Provincial data showed 877 people in intensive care because of the virus and 605 on ventilator.
