Hospital’s Internal COVID-19 Response Level Moves from Red to Orange

Shared on behalf of Jennifer Wintermans, VP, Quality and Corporate Affairs, COVID-19 Lead, Adam Vinet, VP, Patient Experience and Chief Nursing Executive, Regional VP, Cancer Care Services

Effective Monday, June 6th our Hospital’s internal COVID-19 Pandemic Response Level will move from Red (Control) to Orange (Restrict).

The decision to move from Red (Control) to Orange (Restrict) is based on the decreasing number of positive COVID-19 cases in the community, region and province. As well, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at our Hospital has been steadily decreasing as we see less active COVID-19 cases in the community.

The move to Orange (Restrict) will affect the following response activities and Hospital operations as noted below:

  • Surgical Service Levels > Surgical services will remain at 90% of pre-COVID-19 levels and continue to be monitored as we look to increase our service levels as per Ontario Health direction.
  • Emergency Department Precautions > N95 masks will only be required when treating patients that fail screening or require A/D precautions. Pandemic scrubs to be returned to pandemic storages.  
  • Education and Simulation > No learner restrictions. All education on COVID-19 to new staff will continue.
  • Essential Care Partners (ECPs) and Care Partners > No change.
  • Contact Tracing > No change.
  • Patient COVID-19 Testing and Screening > Continue mandatory testing of all admissions.
  • In-person meetings > Continue to keep in-person meeting to a minimum.

Please note that at this time there is no change to the use of eye protection and it will remain mandatory at all times when within our Hospital with the exception of being in an office alone, or eating/ drinking in a designated eating area. We anticipate that COVID-19 activity will continue to decrease and we will be reassessing the Response Level Yellow and the change to eye protection in the coming weeks. 

We thank everyone for their continued cooperation and efforts in keeping our Hospital and community safe.

All Hospital COVID-19 updates, memos and resources are also available on the iNtranet at https://comms.tbrhsc.net/covid-19-information/