Thunder Bay hospital increases COVID-19 capacity as patient numbers rise

The Thunder Bay regional hospital has expanded its COVID-19 and intensive care units after a weekend surge of patients infected with the virus.

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre officials said that, as of Monday, there were 29COVID-19 positive patients in hospital, 10 of whom werein the intensive care unit.

Those numbers are slightly lower than on the weekend, when there were 35total patients on Saturday morning, but still upfrom late last weekwhen there were22 patients,five of whom were in the intensive care unit.

The hospital has expanded the dedicated COVID-19 unit to cover its entire 3A unit, as well as increasing the facility's ability to treat patients requiring intensive care in other areas of the hospital.

"If we need to triple our capacity to provide critical care, our plans allow us to do just that. We are ready to respond to our community's increasing needs during this pandemic," said hospital chief of staff and critical care physician Dr. Zaki Ahmed in a news release.

The hospital's overall patient occupancy is at about 81per cent, an increase from 76 per cent on Saturday morning, but still lower than a week earlier when it was at 92 per cent.

Over the weekend, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit reported 55 new cases of COVID-19. As of Sunday, there were 343 known active cases in the Thunder Bay District.