'HUMANITARIAN CRISIS': Families rally at St. George LTC home
As of Sunday, there are 29 active resident cases out of 140 residents, with 14 of them in hospital
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Two of Canada’s four federal party leaders joined a rally at a Toronto long-term care home Sunday to press the provincial government to do more to protect seniors from the ravages of COVID-19.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the Green Party’s Annamie Paul spoke outside St. George’s Care Community, which is in the midst of one of the largest virus outbreaks in Ontario.
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“This is a plea on behalf of every single person who still has someone who is still alive in these facilities and every single person who has lost someone in these facilities,” said Paul. “This is a humanitarian crisis. As the platitudes mount, so do the death tolls.”
Paul said she has a personal connection to the home, adding her father died there during the first wave of the global pandemic.
At St. George Care Community, 156 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began Dec. 4, the highest number of infections of any long-term care home in the province during the second wave.
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A recent Globe and Mail report documented claims from paramedics that visited the home of residents left dehydrated, starving, and without adequate care.
As of Sunday afternoon, there were 29 active resident cases out of 140 residents, with 14 of them in hospital.
There are 17 residents who have died including 14 who were COVID-19 positive at the time of their death, according to numbers provided by the University Health Network — the hospital which has taken management of the long-term care home owned by Sienna Living. There are 28 staff members with active COVID-19 cases.
“Six leaders from UHN have contributed expertise and on-the-ground oversight in a number of areas,” Dr. Joy Richards, the executive lead for UHN, said in a statement.
“We cannot declare the outbreak over as yet, but we have been more than a week without a new case which is encouraging to everyone associated with the home.”
UHN said in its update, a variety of changes have been made to cleaning, laundry, the air handling system, and the staffing ratios, all of which are working to control the spread of the virus. The mobile vaccination team from UHN visited St. George twice since Dec. 31 to vaccinate 55 staff and 30 residents.
Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos, an associate professor at Ontario Tech University and long-term care researcher, described the conditions in Ontario long-term care homes as “widespread negligence.” She said a personal support worker hiring blitz in June prior to the second wave could have saved lives.
— With files by The Canadian Press
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