Still 'a number of weeks' before COVID-19 pressure on Waterloo region hospitals eases: Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang

Some COVID-19 restrictions are set to be lifted by the province on Monday, but even as the region's medical officer of health sees signs of the virus plateauing in the community, she still warns the reopening must go slowly.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang says she's following local indicators to keep tabs on the virus. Those include data from wastewater being tested for COVID-19 gene signals, the percentage of testing being done that are coming back as positive as well as how quickly new outbreaks are being declared.

Case counts are not currently considered a reliable indicator because not everyone is eligible to be tested for COVID-19.

Speaking at a board of health meeting Wednesday night, Wang said the indicators signal the region "may be reaching a plateau" in the current wave of the pandemic, which has been spurred on by the Omicron variant.

"Assuming trends continue to stabilize and subsequently decrease, it will take a number of weeks before that will translate to an easing of pressures in our hospitals and high risk settings," Wang said.

"The efforts that residents have taken to get vaccinated, to take public health precautions, they are working. It is important that we continue to take a cautious approach following public health precautions and getting a booster dose of the vaccine or getting your first second dose if you haven't had those yet."

Hospitals remain under pressure

Wang also noted local hospitals remain under tremendous pressure. On Wednesday, there were 144 people in Waterloo region's three hospitals. There were 24 people in the intensive care unit. The region notes people in ICU may no longer be infectious with the virus, but do still require specialized care.

The Waterloo Wellington COVID-19 Report for local hospitals released on Tuesday indicated that a "significant number" of staff and patients are impacted by the current wave of the pandemic.

Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener and the Waterloo Wellington hospital regional lead for the COVID-19 response, said in a release with the report that "there are not enough beds for the number of patients who require care."

She said with many staff members still off due to COVID-19, those able to work "have been working additional and longer shifts to provide the necessary care, and it has been appreciated."

There were four COVID-related deaths reported on Wednesday. During the board of health meeting, Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky asked why it seems the region is reporting more deaths this month compared to December.

Wang said that's because deaths tend to come in the weeks following large spikes of new cases.

"You have infections and you have hospitalizations and outbreaks a few weeks later and then you have the peak of deaths still a few weeks after that. So it's the trend that we're seeing locally and is very much the same across the province," she said.

Walk-in appointments start Monday

Starting Monday, all regionally run COVID-19 vaccination clinics will accept walk-in appointments for all ages for first, second or third doses of the vaccine, so long as people are looking for the mRNA vaccines made by either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech.

Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry said she's recently been asked whether people can still access the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Vickie Murray, who leads the region's vaccination roll out, says people can, but they need to arrange that directly with public health.

As well, people can access Janssen, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, by signing up through the region's website.

"We certainly do understand that there are some people in the community who are more interested in getting a viral vector vaccine than getting the Pfizer and the Moderna," Murray said.

The region's dashboard showed on Wednesday that just over 78 per cent of all residents have at least two doses of the vaccine. Children aged four and younger are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Murray noted the region needs about 12,000 people to get their first dose of the vaccine for the community to reach the 90 per cent vaccinated milestone.

4th doses at LTC homes

Vickie Murray, who leads the region's vaccination roll out, told councillors that public health is well on its way to providing fourth doses to people living in long-term care and retirement homes.

"We have completed 23 out of the 24 long term care homes in our community and 22 out of the 30 retirement homes due to outbreaks. The remaining long term care homes and retirement homes should be completed in early February," she said.

The region's dashboard on Wednesday showed 36 long-term care and retirement homes were in outbreak.