Hospital capacity in Brampton continues to rapidly improve as the COVID-19 Omicron wave continues to recede as quickly as it grew.
According to Mayor Patrick Brown, the William Osler Health System was reporting just 17 COVID-related hospitalizations at Brampton Civic Hospital with four patients in intensive care as of Feb. 22.
“One of the reasons for the restrictions throughout the pandemic was we were worried about hospital capacity. As I’ve been stating for a long period now, that our hospital capacity is strong and stable,” Brown told reporters during the city’s weekly COVID-19 press briefing on Feb. 23.
Just a few weeks ago in mid-January, there were well over 100 COVID patients at Brampton Civic, prompting hospital officials to cancel elective surgeries and shut down the Peel Memorial Urgent Care Center to redeploy resources to address the surge.
COVID admission numbers have fallen steadily each week since peaking at 110 just a few weeks ago and Osler plans to reopen the Urgent Care Center on March 21. There has been no word yet on when non-urgent surgeries and procedures will summarize.
“We’ve seen this trend line from 110 to 70, to 38, to 21 to 17. Every week I’m reporting lower numbers at the hospital,” Brown said. “We’re now at a point where we have stronger hospital capacity right now, in terms of more room at the hospital, than we had before the pandemic.”
“I’m increasingly and cautiously optimistic that we’re going to see better days ahead,” Brown added.