Coronavirus: Toronto establishes field hospital outside Sunnybrook in preparation for the third wave

The Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto is in the process of establishing a mobile field hospital in the parking lot as it prepares to address the potential for the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this year, the Trudeau government promised to set up two specialized mobile field hospitals in GTA to add 200 beds to the hospital system.

The 100-bed facility in Sunnybrook’s parking lot is one of the promised facilities, and the CTV news that Toronto learned on Monday helps prevent the local healthcare system from being overwhelmed. The purpose is that.

I could see a worker setting up a tent outside the hospital on Tuesday.

The facility will be equipped with ventilators, oxygen devices, portable x-ray devices, and negative pressure systems.

The federal government has signed a contract with Weatherhaven Global Resources to build the facility.

Field hospitals may start operations as early as April and are expected to stay there until at least May.

For optimistic reasons, but be careful

As Toronto’s top doctor warned on Monday, the move is optimistic given the imminent arrival of vaccines, but warns that caution remains to be taken to protect against the virus. did.

In her latest briefing, health care officer Dr. Eileen de Villa said that Toronto has seen an increasing proportion of COVID-19 cases screened positive for variants of more contagious concerns. He said it meant staying in an “unstable” position.

She said the calculated doubling time for the variant of concern is now 9 days.

“Our last full week of data shows that 32% of COVID-19 cases contained mutations, but preliminary data for the latest period show that nearly 40% of reported cases. It suggests that it has been screened positive as a mutation of concern, “Devira told reporters Monday.

She quotes a study from the Scripps Research Institute in California and the Center for Infectious Diseases Research Policy at the University of Minnesota, where variants account for about 50% of all viruses in all countries where variants have caused a threatening resurgence. I discovered that each case occurred when occupying. Identified.

She adds that the vaccine is powerful, but “not beyond the challenge” of the virus, and there are still many uncertainties about how mutants weaken the overall effectiveness of the vaccine in the fight against pandemics. There is.

“These are exciting and promising times when vaccine supplies are on the rise,” de Villa said. “But don’t confuse progress with completion. We still have a way to go, and I want to remind you, and we’ve seen this before: we’re COVID-19 If you give 1 inch, it will take 1 mile.

“It takes every opportunity to establish and spread myself, so I have to ask you more patience while I’m vaccinated against millions of people in Toronto. “

She urged people to stay away, mask, wash their hands, and refrain from unnecessary gatherings with others.

After the blockade of the entire state drastically reduced the number of daily cases The number of cases is increasing again Recently with hospitalization in both Ontario and Toronto.

The latest figures on Tuesday urged Dr. Michael Werner, director of critical care at Michael Garon Hospital, to tell CP24 that he believes the third wave of the pandemic has already begun in Toronto. ..

“I believe Wave 3 is on us,” Warner said.

He went to the state to ensure that people at greatest risk of serious health effects from the virus would be vaccinated first when administration began to be deployed to more segments of the general population. I called.

According to data from Critical Care Services Ontario, there were 344 COVID-19 patients in the 27 new hospitalized Ontario intensive care units last night, the highest number of COVID patients in the ICU since January.

At the peak of the second wave, there were 420 COVID-19 patients in the Ontario ICU.

-CTV News with files from Nata Regionson in Toronto