Major Ontario city has no COVID-19 patients in intensive care for first time during pandemic
Brampton is commemorating a major COVID-19 milestone with no virus-related patients in intensive care units (ICU) for the first time in the pandemic, Mayor Patrick Brown says.
While speaking at the city’s weekly coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday, Brown said that there are currently zero patients with the deadly virus in ICU at Brampton Civic Hospital.
“The fact that we don't have a single patient in ICU is incredible, an incredible sign of progress and the success of the vaccination effort,” Brown said.
There are currently three people with the virus at Brampton Civic but they don’t have severe illnesses that would require them to be in ICU, Brown said.
The milestone is a dramatic improvement from the spring when nearly 140 patients were transferred out of Brampton Civic Hospital as the hospital system was overwhelmed with a spike in infections.
“There was a time when we were literally transferring out 100 patients a week from Brampton Civic Hospital. We'd be sending into hospitals around Southern Ontario by land, by air. We were so overwhelmed, our hospital capacity, that we had to depend on the hospital system throughout southern Ontario,” Brown said.
Skyrocketing hospitalizations during the height of the third wave, which surpassed 2,700 cumulative at one point in Ontario, resulted in a temporary halt to all non-emergent and non-urgent procedures across the province.
Health officials had linked the soaring infections to highly contagious and more deadly variants.
Brampton has been one of the hardest hit cities across the province throughout the pandemic, making up roughly 59.5 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Peel Region.
To date, there have been nearly 112,000 lab-confirmed cases in Peel Region and 110,982 recoveries.
Over 3,200 patients have received treatment for the virus in Peel Region hospitals and 478 patients have been admitted to ICUs since January 2020.
There have been 845 confirmed virus-related deaths in Peel Region.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
WATCH LIVE As GC Strategies partner is admonished by MPs, RCMP confirms search warrant executed
The RCMP confirmed Wednesday it had executed a search warrant at an address registered to GC Strategies. This development comes as MPs are enacting an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power, summoning one of its contractors to appear before the House of Commons to be admonished publicly for failing to answer questions related to the ArriveCan app.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 across the country.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.
Disappointment widespread over budget's proposed $200-month disability benefit funding
Advocacy groups across Canada are expressing widespread disappointment about the amount of funding earmarked in the 2024 federal budget for the long-awaited Canada Disability Benefit.