The team leading the management of Humber River Hospital’s mobile vaccination clinic, Ruben Rodriguez, administers the first dose of Modern COVID-19 vaccine to an employee of Apotex Pharmaceutical Company as part of the coronavirus vaccination campaign (COVID-19) in Toronto. Ontario, Canada, April 13, 2021. REUTERS / Carlos Osorio
The Canadian province of Ontario extended and extended the home stay order on Friday and said police will be given new powers to stop and interrogate people leaving home as expert advisers warned that new COVID-19 cases will continue to climbs, overwhelming hospitals.
Ontario also announced restrictions on non-essential travel in neighboring provinces from Monday and said non-essential construction, including construction projects at malls, hotels and office towers, will close on Saturday to deal with a the third wave of furor.
“The reality is that there are few options left,” said Prime Minister Doug Ford. “The difficult truth is that every public health measure we have left comes at a massive cost to people.”
New projections released by a provincial advisory group on Friday showed new cases rising to more than 10,000 a day in June if “moderate” public health measures remain in place for six weeks and vaccination levels remain roughly flat. Ontario, which hosts 38% of Canada’s population, announced a record 4,812 cases on Friday.
Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the advisory group, said the moderate scenario was tantamount to a home order announced last week. The number of patients in need of intensive care could reach 2,000 in May, compared to 695 on Friday, the forecast showed.
The terrible forecast came as Moderna (MRNA.O) said it would reduce the next delivery to Canada by almost half to 650,000 doses, and Canada announced an agreement to buy another 8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine. Read more
In recent weeks, Ontario has closed schools, restaurants, restricted shopping in stores and canceled elective operations because a wave of hospitalizations has threatened to overwhelm hospitals.
HOSPITAL UNDER PRESSURE
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government would help hit hard in Toronto, the province’s capital and the country’s largest city.
“We will do whatever it takes to help,” Trudeau told reporters. “We are discussing additional health care providers and we are ready to step up.”
Trudeau said Canada had agreed to buy an additional 8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, including 4 million to be delivered in May, nearly doubling Pfizer deliveries that month. Federal officials have previously said most Canadians should receive a first dose by the end of June.
At the northern end of Toronto, Sunnybrook Hospital is preparing to open a mobile health unit, effectively a field hospital, for some COVID patients immediately after next week, a spokesman said in a statement sent by e-mail. mail.
The city’s university health network (UHN) is installing tents at two emergency rooms to increase space.
The number of patients at UHN with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, an artificial lung treatment sometimes used to keep the sickest patients with COVID alive, reached 23, including 20 with COVID. The hospital network has previously said it could treat up to 30 patients.
Separately on Friday, Health Canada said it had received a request from Pfizer and BioNTech to extend the use of its vaccine to children 12 years of age and older, down from 16 years of age.
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