{"id":2323,"date":"2020-04-08T13:02:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T06:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illume-emag.com\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2020-04-08T13:02:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T06:02:06","slug":"coronavirus-takes-deadly-toll-canadas-nursing-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/coronavirus-takes-deadly-toll-canadas-nursing-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus takes deadly toll on Canada’s nursing homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\/MONTREAL — With deaths in nursing homes making up almost half of Canada\u2019s coronavirus deaths, provinces are taking control of their workforces, boosting care\u00a0workers\u2019\u00a0wages and redeploying health inspectors from hospitals to curb the virus\u2019 spread among seniors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
A paramedic removes protective gear outside the Lynn Valley Care Centre, a seniors care home which housed a man who was the first in Canada to die after contracting novel coronavirus, in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada March 9, 2020. Photo: Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In one Ontario home, more than a third of residents, 27 people, have died since March 25 and more than half its staff have tested positive for the coronavirus as a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) hit workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese long-term care facilities are the frontline of this crisis,\u201d said Kitra Cahana, whose quadriplegic father lives at a Quebec long-term care facility while her mother works at a Quebec seniors\u2019 residence.<\/p>\n

In Quebec, 60% of deaths have been in either seniors\u2019 homes or long-term care facilities and a quarter of the province\u2019s nursing homes have at least one confirmed case, according to provincial data.<\/p>\n

Residents in nursing homes and long-term care facilities are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, because of typically more compromised immune systems, frailty and sharing common areas. Frequent visitors and workers from outside compound the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther people inadvertently may transmit the infection, and this is where the problem is. Oftentimes it is the vectoring from outside the home into the home,\u201d said Dr. Roger Wong, a clinical professor of geriatric medicine at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

In British Columbia, where 68% of provincial deaths have been in nursing homes, the virus is spreading through different residences as low-paid care workers supplement their income by working in multiple homes.<\/p>\n

The province\u2019s medical officer of health enacted strict restrictions on who could visit long-term care facilities, limited employees to work in only one home at a time and canceled patient transfers between facilities.<\/p>\n

In Alberta, where 56% of deaths are in care homes, employees who work in multiple seniors\u2019 homes are required to inform their supervisors if they work at a facility where there has been a confirmed or suspected case, among other measures.<\/p>\n

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People from the community drive and honk their horns in support for Pinecrest Nursing Home after several residents died and dozens of staff were sickened by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, Canada March 30, 2020. Photo:\u00a0<\/em>Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canada on Tuesday reported 17,063 coronavirus cases and 345 deaths.<\/p>\n

Ontario, Canada\u2019s most-populous province, has issued an emergency order that provides long-term care homes more flexibility in staffing and recruitment, bypassing collective bargaining agreements that limit who can be hired and the use of volunteers, and redeployed inspectors to provide additional help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing happening to our seniors and in our long-term care homes … is hard to process, it\u2019s hard to comprehend and it\u2019s hard to deal with,\u201d Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters.<\/p>\n

‘War zone’ in some homes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ontario order will take some pressure off workers who say there has not been enough staff to provide proper care for residents, especially in an outbreak, said Miranda Ferrier, president of the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are absolutely desperate for help. It is a war zone in some of these long-term care homes,\u201d Ferrier said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope with this emergency order is that people will be hired to help with things like snack carts, feeding, laundry, assisting [personal support workers]\u00a0where they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frontline workers have warned of inadequate protective equipment in some long-term care facilities in Quebec, which has become Canada\u2019s epicenter for the pandemic with 9,340 positive cases.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Workers wave at passing cars honking their horns in support for Pinecrest Nursing Home after several residents died and dozens of staff were sickened by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, Canada March 30, 2020. Photo:\u00a0<\/em>Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Quebec nursing home worker told\u00a0Reuters<\/em>\u00a0she was buying her own face shield because the home she works at does not provide equipment due to an absence of positive tests.<\/p>\n

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the worker said she had dealt with two residents who were sick and awaiting COVID-19 test results.<\/p>\n

Faced with staffing shortages, Quebec raised wages for most health workers by 4% to 8% and said on Tuesday it would deploy more nurses and doctors to care homes.<\/p>\n

Jeff Begley, president of Quebec\u2019s largest health-sector union, said workers were starting to get \u201cvery anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the virus is not going to get you, the stress will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Tuoitrenews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\/MONTREAL — With deaths in nursing homes making up almost half of Canada\u2019s coronavirus deaths, provinces are taking control of their workforces, boosting care\u00a0workers\u2019\u00a0wages and redeploying health inspectors from hospitals to curb the virus\u2019 spread among seniors. In one Ontario home, more than a third of residents, 27 people, have died since March 25 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[1087,1123],"class_list":{"0":"post-2323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity-buzz","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-covid-19"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavyon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}