Hospitals strained amid 'widespread community transmission' of COVID-19: Dr. Wang

Waterloo Region's hospitals continue to experience capacity issues as COVID-19 cases surge in the community.

Speaking at the region's weekly COVID-19 briefing on Friday morning, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said "Ontario and Waterloo Region continue to experience widespread community transmission of Omicron."

"It is projected this will continue for the month of January," Dr. Wang added.

Hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes, and congregate settings all continue to deal with an increase in COVID-19 outbreaks.

"Local hospitals continue to be under a very significant strain," Dr. Wang said.

Lee Fairclough, the president of St. Mary's General Hospital and COVID-19 lead for Waterloo Wellington Hospitals, said the number of patients in hospital needing care for the disease has "jumped dramatically" in recent days and weeks.

"Our hospitals across the region once again experienced the most additional pressure on the health system we've seen yet in this pandemic," Fairclough said.

She added local hospitals are working hard to expand capacity, along with hiring more staff and pausing non-urgent procedures.

"This stage of the pandemic is challenging to us," Fairclough said.

Hospital officials said they're also facing challenges due to staff either testing positive for or being exposed to COVID-19. Across Waterloo Wellington, nearly 600 staff are off work due to the disease.

WASTEWATER SIGNAL

Health officials say they're closely monitoring the area's wastewater signal for COVID-19 trends, especially because of limited testing eligibility in Ontario.

Dr. Wang said Friday that signals "continue to be at their highest levels," but some local areas are seeing "early indications of the signal starting to plateau."

"In Waterloo, the wastewater signal continued to increase, but there may be indications of the signal starting to plateau in Kitchener and Cambridge," she said. "A reminder, however, that impacts to our health-care system will likely be a few weeks behind an increase or decrease in cases. So, we should not expect impacts to our health-care system to ease until at least a few weeks after infections decrease."

STUDENTS RETURN TO SCHOOL

Students will return to in-class learning on Monday. Both the Waterloo Region District School Board and Waterloo Catholic District School Board will offer a temporary remote option for any students and families who aren't comfortable going back to the classroom.

Dr. Wang said information from the province shows "school closures are associated with substantial mental health and educational attainment harms."

"The evidence suggests that closures of in-person learning has had a smaller effect on community spread of COVID-19 compared to other public health measures," she added.

She also stressed the importance of high-quality masks and ventilation within school settings.

Dr. Wang said the risk of severe outcomes is lower in school-aged children, and encouraged residents to vaccinate younger age groups to further reduce the risk of hospitalization.

VACCINATION UPDATE

Vickie Murray, the vaccine lead for Waterloo Region, said clinics are averaging about 7,000 doses per day this week.

Murray estimated 53 per cent of eligible residents have received a booster dose, adding that percentage is much higher in the 70 to 79 and 80+ age groups.

She said there are still thousands of appointments available before the end of January, adding the region is considering offering walk-in appointments for booster shots as capacity and availability allow.

Murray said the region has also started administering fourth doses to eligible groups under the province's guidelines.

Appointments are also available for pediatric vaccines for children between the ages of five and 11, and Murray said many in that age group will be eligible for their second dose this week, and the region will have the capacity to administer about 900 second doses a say to children for the following two weeks.

ENFORCEMENT

Regional Chair Karen Redman said City of Kitchener bylaw issued a ticket to Savannah Lounge for exceeding capacity limits under the Reopening Ontario Act.

That ticket was for $880.