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They have been bracing for the worst, a deluge of desperately sick COVID-19 patients who overwhelm resources and lead to chilling decisions over who gets life-saving care.

Doctors, nurses and other staff who run the nation’s intensive-care units have feared for their own safety, too, amid shortages of protective equipment.

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But, perhaps surprisingly, some critical-care physicians in the hardest-hit provinces say they have yet to face that feared surge of coronavirus sufferers.

So far, at least, there is no flood, and plenty of available ICU beds.

In Ontario, almost 78 per cent of the province’s expanded ventilator capacity remained free.The patient volume was well under the “best case” scenario depicted in Ontario-government epidemic modelling released earlier this month.

Quebec has seen a modest eight to 10 COVID-19 admissions a day to the ICU recently, and none at all from April 7 to April 8, said Dr. Frédérick D’aragon of the University of Sherbrooke, his province’s spokesman for the Canadian Critical Care Society.