COVID-19 patients being transferred to Waterloo Region, Guelph hospitals continues decline

The number of patients suffering from COVID-19 who are being transferred to area hospitals from the Toronto region continues to head in the right direction.

Two weeks ago, a release from St. Mary’s General Hospital (SMGH) said that 33 patients had been transferred to hospitals in Kitchener, Guelph, Cambridge and Fergus over the previous week.

That number declined to 25 last Thursday while it sank to 19 over the past week, according to SMGH.

Kitchener’s Grand River Hospital continues to take on the lion’s share of the burden as it took in 11 more patients, including eight who needed intensive care while the other three were in need of acute care.

Two weeks ago, the hospital had 31 COVID-19 patients in need of intensive and acute care, however, it now houses 16 patients in need of COVID-19 care.

2:31 COVID-19: Managing hospital capacity remains key battle ground with nearly 900 in Ontario ICUs

The other hospitals have also seen a slight decline or a flat line in the number of patients with COVID-19 that are in their care.

Guelph General Hospital has taken in three patients from outside of the area and now has 19 in total. There were 21 two weeks ago.

Both Cambridge Memorial Hospital (1) and SMGH (4) each took in patients from outside of the region with the former now housing 13 patients while the latter also has 14 although SMGH also saw an outbreak declared this week as well.

Groves Hospital in Fergus did not see any new transfers over the past week as it is down from three patients two weeks ago to two patients this week.

The decline in transfer numbers correlates with the decline in the number of new cases as the province announced 2,759 new cases on Thursday while that number came in at 3,871 two weeks earlier.