Paramedics in the Montreal area say they are being overwhelmed by a surge in 911 calls, mostly for slips and falls.
Urgences-santé, which serves Montreal and Laval, said they typically receive about 40 calls between 8 and 9 a.m., but on Thursday they told CTV News they responded to 175 calls.
The situation worsened throughout the morning. Shortly before 10 a.m., they wrote on social media they were getting upwards of “100 calls per hour” and urged people to ”avoid travelling and stay at home.”
Several neighbourhoods are still dealing with the remnants of two major storms on Feb. 13 and 16 that dumped more than 70 centimetres of snow. More snow fell Thursday morning after periods of rain in the past few days.
Shortly before 1 p.m., Urgences-santé said the situation had slightly improved, but they were still dealing with a high volume of calls.
“Please call 8-1-1 for all minor health issues and reserve 9-1-1 exclusively for life-threatening cases,” the said in a Facebook post.
With files from CTV News Montreal’s Max Harrold
