With half of all COVID-19 deaths so far occurring in long-term care residences Canadian politicians are scrambling to respond. But experts say the deadly toll of the outbreak among the frail and elderly was all too predictable.
The surge in COVID-19 illnesses and deaths within Canada’s long-term care facilities has left politicians scrambling to react and experts wondering why no one listened to their warnings.
According to data collected by the federal government, close to half of all COVID-19 deaths — a toll that stood at 832 as of Monday — have occurred in nursing homes.
“We recognize the terrible and tragic stories that have come out of seniors’ residences and long-term care facilities across the country,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon. “We know we need to do more.”
In Ontario, where 114 long-term care facilities are now dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks, with three of the homes having reported more than 20 deaths each, Premier Doug Ford likened the situation to a “wildfire,” promising to dispatch hospital-based teams to tackle the problem.
“My top priority right now is getting the troops and resources needed at this front,” he said during his daily media briefing Tuesday.
While in Quebec, where the province is calling the situation in 41 long-term care homes “critical,” and 1,250 staff are off work due to illness or potential exposure to the virus, Premier François Legault issued a desperate plea to health care workers.
“I’m asking everybody available to come forward and help us,” he said. “I appeal to your sense of duty to help us protect the most vulnerable.”
But those calls to action are being greeted with skepticism by some experts and advocates who say that the country’s seniors’ residences were obvious COVID-19 danger zones and should have been better protected.
‘We saw it coming’
“This wasn’t just foreseeable, it was foreseen. We saw it coming in Italy. We saw it coming in Spain, let alone what was happening in Asia. And we knew that people in long-term facilities would be left without the care they need,” says Laura Tamblyn Watts, the CEO of CanAge, a national seniors’ advocacy organization.
“There is a failu