Hundreds of regional hospital staff off work due to COVID-19

About 200 staff at Grand River Hospital,65 staff at St. Mary's General Hospital and 83 staff at Cambridge Memorial Hospitalare absent from work as a result of COVID-19.

The health-care workers, including frontline staff, areisolatingbecause they have either been exposed to or infected with the virus, or awaiting testresults.

"We are feeling the impact of this," said Cheryl Evans, manager of communications at Grand River Hospital, in an emailed statement to CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

"Staffing in some units is a challenge that is being mitigated daily," Evans said.

She said the staffing situationis being reviewed "to be able to redeploy staff and other resources to support the provision of urgent and inpatient care for our community where it is needed."

At St. Mary's, most staffwho are impacted by the virus are experiencing mild illness, said Dayna Giorgio, manager of communications, in an emailed statement to CBC K-W.

As a result, they can "be returned to work as quickly and safely as possible."

Non-urgent procedures suspended

As of Tuesday,local hospitals suspended non-urgent procedures for at least two weeks as a result of the increased demand in COVID-19 care.

Impacted hospitals include Grand River Hospital, St. Mary's General Hospital, Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Guelph General Hospital, North Wellington Health Care and Groves Memories Community Hospital.

Instead, they'll only provide urgent, emergent and cancer surgical procedures, as well as maintain emergency departments, inpatient care and essential clinics.

Evans said Grand River accommodates about 820 surgical procedures per month. Currently, the hospital is deferring about 800 cases per month as a result of service reductions.

Meanwhile, at Cambridge Memorial, bed occupancy has reached 95 per cent.

There were 61 people in regionalhospitals with COVID-19 as of Wednesday. Six people were in intensive care.