People suffering from COVID-19 who need care in an intensive care unit are coming to Lambton County.

Bluewater Health says it will start caring for a number of patients in the coming days after the province of Manitoba announced its ICUs are well over capacity as the need for the beds continues to increase.

Manitoba normally has 70 or so intensive care unit beds. Today, there are 69 people in them with COVID-19. That doesn’t included 25 critically ill patients who have been sent to Ontario for help.

A provincial official said Thursday more patients were to be transfer to Ontario and, for the first time, Saskatchewan. Bluewater Health is one of those hospitals.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic we’ve had COVID patients from other areas – Leamington,Windsor, London, then the GTA, and now from out of province,” says Dr. Mike Haddad, Chief of Staff, Bluewater Health in a news release.

“Capacity pressures have reached a level in Manitoba where they are requesting our support and we are proud to help. This is why we are here and do what we do – we care for people and use our skills to save lives if we can.

“This pandemic has to have a team approach to ensure we all make it to the finish line together.”