ARM Chapter 12, Toronto
Ontario Health Coalition: Update on the State of the Pandemic
Ontario Health Coalition
Update on the State of the Pandemic
In the last three weeks, Ontario’s coroners have seen 25 people in South/Central Ontario who died suddenly at home as a result of COVID-19, some in their 20s and 30s, before they ever got to the hospital for care. Like many of you, our hearts went out to the family upon reading the devastating account of young Emily Viegas, a 13-year-old who tragically died at home in bed of COVID-19 on Thursday. Her mom, who has COVID, is hospitalized at Brampton Civic Hospital and her father who works in a warehouse in Brampton, feared Emily would be separated from both her parents and sent to a different hospital, kept her home thinking that she was young and would recover.
The urgency of the situation cannot be overstated. In the last seven days, Ontario has had 28,358 people test positive for COVID-19 and in the last seven days alone 195 Ontarians have passed away from COVID-19. Ontario’s COVID death rate is more than 1 death per hour.
April 25- 3,947 cases and 24 deathsApril 24- 4,094 cases and 24 deathsApril 23- 4,505 cases and 34 deathsApril 22- 3,686 cases and 40 deathsApril 21- 4,212 cases and 32 deathsApril 20- 2,469 cases and 22 deathsApril 19- 4,447 cases and 19 deaths
The Ford Government did not take adequate steps to prevent or mitigate the third wave of COVID-19. Now surgeries are cancelled, and nurses and health professionals of every discipline are being reassigned to unfamiliar duties in unfamiliar environments. Patients are transferred hundreds of kilometres away from their families. Families are left in limbo. All kinds of medical treatments are on hold and doctors, health care professionals and families are having to make extremely difficult decisions.
Buses, ambulances and helicopters are all being used to shuttle the critically ill around the province, in an effort to find space and personnel who can help keep them alive. Hospital and health care staff everywhere are fighting to save every life they can. They’re under more pressure than they thought possible.
We all need to do everything we can to keep ourselves and each other safe by minimizing our risks of contracting COVID-19 and minimizing our chances of needing medical treatment in order to lessen the strain on our health care system. That means employers supporting workers to work at home, all of us limiting travel and staying safe at home as much as possible. This crisis could have been mitigated or prevented, but we have a responsibility to do the right thing and work together to try to assist our health care system and our health care workers to get through it.
No one can predict how your body is going to react to COVID-19. Don’t hesitate to call EMS or go to the hospital.—
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~ Protecting Public Medicare for All ~www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
416-441-2502
