As of Jan. 13, the outbreak raging at the Centre d’Hébergement Ormstown (CHO) had infected at least 37 residents and sadly claimed the lives of at least three of those who had tested positive for the coronavirus. The CHO is now listed at a critical alert with just under 55 percent of bed capacity now being consumed by patients fighting a COVID-19 infection. There are currently 99 CHSLDs across the province dealing with at least one case of the virus, including three other long-term care facilities in the Montérégie West.
The outbreak in Ormstown is certainly contributing to the increase in the number of confirmed infections in the Haut-Saint-Laurent local health network (LHN), which recorded 87 active cases as of Jan. 13. The rate of infection in the region is now the second highest in the whole of the Montérégie at 355.4 per 100,000 individuals. In fact, the Haut-Saint-Laurent is second only to the Suroît LHN, with a rate of 363.8 infections per 100,000. There are currently 222 actives cases in the Suroît LHN, 326 in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges LHN and 553 in the Jardins-Roussillon LHN, which includes the Hemmingford area. Both the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent and the MRC des Jardins-de-Napierville saw an additional 58 infections diagnosed in the week since Jan. 7. The MRC de Beauharnois-Salaberry added 143 cases, and 210 more cases were diagnosed in the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges in the last seven days.
New hot zone in the region
According to an article published by Le Journal Saint-François, the Suroît Hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield opened a 15-bed COVID-19 ward earlier this week. This new unit will alleviate some of the pressure on the hot zone at the Anna-Laberge Hospital in Châteauguay, which was facing an occupancy rate earlier this week of between 80 and 97 percent. There are currently 30 beds in the COVID-19 unit at Anna-Laberge. As of next week, there will also be an additional five beds reserved in the intensive care unit for patients fighting the virus at the Châteauguay-based hospital.
