For those who don't get why this is a big deal and we need to slow the spread:
Some quotes from that article:
Three professors from the University of Milan also sent
a letter warning doctors in the rest of Europe to "get ready," because 10 per cent of patients who test positive for COVID-19 end up needing intensive care.
f you can slow it down enough and flatten the curve, so the same number of people get infected, but over a much longer period of time, then ... what you're allowing is that the capacity will not be exceeded," said Dr. Anand Kumar, a critical care physician at Winnipeg's Health Science Centre.
Most healthy people will experience a mild COVID-19 infection because their immune system will protect them. But so far, the experience in
Italy and
China suggests that as many as 10 per cent of people infected can require critical care.
That creates an urgent need for beds in intensive care units, along with ventilation, dialysis and other life support technology. It also requires qualified health-care specialists to manage patients — excess capacity that Canadian hospitals just don't have.
"If you do not stop the spread of the disease, your health system — no matter how good, how efficient, how modern it is — sooner or later will collapse," said Grasselli. "Because the number of patients is too high for the resources we have everywhere in the world."