The Canadian government has deployed its military and Red Cross teams to Ontario to help in checking a surge in coronavirus hospitalisations.
“We will continue to work with Ontario to keep Canadians safe and healthy,” Canadian Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair tweeted.
Canada’s most populated state Ontario has been hit by a surge of infections, as the country goes through a third wave of infections.
This is as Ontario reported shortage of vaccine to fight the pandemic.
As of Monday, 3,917 cases on average were recorded in seven days and 605 people were in ICUs.
The region had also reported a vaccine shortage. Help was sent after Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones’s office had requested assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Red Cross to cope with critical-care COVID-19 patients.
“In addition to health human resources, we are requesting logistical and operational support as we seek to augment our response to COVID-19,” read a statement from Jones’s press secretary, CBC News reported.
The severity of a surge in cases came to light after a 13-year-old girl, Emily Veigas from Brampton succumbed to COVID-19— the situation drew widespread concern.
“This is beyond heart-wrenching. As a parent, I am lost for words. Horrifying,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown tweeted about Viegas’s death.
The Canadian Armed Forces, in a statement, said, “The CAF is preparing to deploy up to three multi-purpose medical assistance teams (MMATs), which are scalable healthcare provider teams primarily composed of Nursing Officers and Medical Technicians as well as additional CAF members for general duty support as applicable.”
