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“People will be very angry about it in the emergency room,” the source added.
Meanwhile, the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) released it latest projections on Thursday warning of the prospect of beds over capacity as early as Jan. 12.
“Projections predict a significant increase in bed occupancy in the coming weeks,” the INESSS study concludes. “Unlike in previous weeks, an overrun of dedicated capacity cannot be ruled out, as more than half of the designated beds are already occupied.”
Those projections were based on hospitalizations until Dec. 20, and do not take into account the fact that the Quebec Health Ministry reported record increases on two of the subsequent three days this week. On Wednesday, the province posted a total of 1,052 hospitalizations, and a record 2,349 cases.
(The government has suspended publication of COVID-19 statistics on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. From Dec. 27 until Jan. 3, the government will release stats on confirmed cases, the overall number of deaths as well as hospitalizations from previous days, but no figures on outbreaks.)
Reacting to the latest hospital projections, Health Minister Christian Dubé urged Quebecers to respect the rules of the latest lockdown, during which non-essential businesses will stay closed for two weeks.
“The holiday pause is essential if we don’t want to hit a wall in January,” Dubé tweeted, prompting some responses on Twitter that Quebec has already smashed into one.
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