The pressures on the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre as a result of the city’s COVID crisis have forced the facility to move patients to southern Ontario.
Officials say that there are currently 22 patients in the Intensive Care Unit being treated for the virus, 19 of which are on ventilators.
As well, a COVID-19 outbreak on 1A has left the hospital without the extra beds necessary to care for patients who are critically ill.
As a result they have transferred some ICU patients to hospital down south where there is more capacity.
They have also diverted some critical care patients south from the region who would normally be see here in Thunder Bay.
The hospital insists the measures are temporary to minimize the risk of spreading the virus “and will be evaluated to ensure they are effective and appropriate.”