Ontario is ending several emergency orders aimed at preserving hospital capacity during the height of the third wave, including allowing hospitals to resume non-urgent surgeries that require inpatient and critical care services.
Hospitals can also no longer transfer patients to long-term care or retirement homes without their consent, and home care and other health-care staff can no longer be redeployed to those homes.
The orders were imposed in April, when the province's hospitals were under immense pressure and had to move patients between facilities, redirect staff and cancel non-urgent procedures to ensure they had the capacity to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients.
The CEO of Ontario Health, which co-ordinates several agencies in the health-care system, says hospitals can resume non-urgent surgeries requiring inpatient services if they meet certain criteria, including having a plan for a rise in COVID-19 patients and readiness to accept patient transfers.
Patients can still be transferred between hospitals without their consent and non-hospital health-care staff can still be redeployed to hospitals.
There are currently 729 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, including 546 in intensive care and 370 patients on ventilators.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit reports 13 local people in hospital, five of which are in the ICU. According to Windsor Regional Hospital, as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, there are four people in the hospital who have been transferred from out of town, all of which are in the ICU.