'We have never seen anything like this': Health officials issue plea for public's help to bring COVID-19 cases down

“We are really not in a good place and things could go very badly in Ottawa in the next few weeks in terms of our hospitals’ abilities to keep up,” said Ottawa’s deputy medical officer of health, Dr. Brent Moloughney. “We have never seen anything like this before.” With hospitals in the city expanding intensive care units and CHEO, for the first time, opening ICU beds to adult patients, the pressure on the health system is becoming unsustainable, Moloughney said. “If this trend continues, the health care system will have extreme difficulty keeping up.” While vaccinations are ramping up, Moloughney says the city will not be able to vaccinate its way out of the current crisis. Only the efforts of the public to stay home and follow public health advice to reduce transmission will make a difference.