There are still not enough beds at Waterloo Wellington hospitals to care for the number of patients seeking help.
In their bi-weekly update, officials from the seven area hospitals said they have partnered to transfer patients to where there is capacity, and transfers are happening "within and out of region."
As of Tuesday morning, Waterloo Wellington hospitals were short 30 medical beds, and had five ICU beds available.
This comes as the number of COVID-19 positive patients and hospital staff have decreased in the last week.
On Tuesday, 134 COVID-19 positive patients are hospitalized as compared to 164 listed on Friday. There are currently 273 staff off due to the virus compared to 390 last Friday.
Despite the "encouraging trend", hospital officials said scheduled non-emergent procedures will remain on hold.
“Our teams continue providing care for high numbers of patients with COVID-19. Nearly every hospital in Waterloo Wellington is also managing multiple outbreaks. If trends for Omicron and hospitalizations can continue to decrease, in the month of February, hospitals will hopefully move from focusing mostly on COVID-related care and urgent/emergent cases to bringing patients back into hospital for other surgeries and procedures,” said Lee Fairclough, president, St. Mary’s General Hospital and Waterloo Wellington hospital regional lead, COVID-19 response. ”I want to thank each and every staff member in local hospitals, from whom the demand for care never decreases.”
