A man in his 50s had returned to Toronto from Wuhan, China and within a day started to feel ill. He was treated at Sunnybrook Hospital and discharged days later. Since then, the number of daily reported cases of COVID-19 and deaths related to the disease has skyrocketed. What started as a handful of infections related to travel or close contacts soon doubled, tripled and quadrupled. The military was called in to deal with outbreaks at long-term care homes and Ontario residents were forced by law into their homes, permitted only to leave for essential reasons such as work or groceries.
Last Updated Thursday, January 21, 2021 7:22AM EST Preliminary cases of a COVID-19 variant have been discovered at a long-term care home in Barrie that is currently combating an outbreak of the deadly virus. Laboratory testing has identified a variant of the novel coronavirus in six swabs at Roberta Pace, according to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU). “The variant strain testing is a two part test, and at this time, the first test indicates a very high probability that they are of a variant strain of concern. The second part of the test is a whole genome sequencing test to determine the exact strain,” reads a statement from SMDHU on Wednesday.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he’s deeply troubled by the recently-announced Pfizer vaccine shortage, and is changing the province’s COVID-19 vaccination plan to ensure the most vulnerable are given their necessary second dose.
TORONTO The families of residents at a Scarborough long-term care centre where a recent outbreak of COVID-19 has led to the death of at least 62 residents shared their stories about their ordeal at a town hall meeting on Sunday evening. The ‘Save our Seniors’ town hall provided several families an opportunity to talk about their experiences and the challenges they faced as they scrambled to get information about their loved ones after an outbreak was declared at Tendercare Living Centre. It was hosted by Scarborough-Southwest NDP MPP Doly Begum and Vivian Stamatopoulos, a long-term care home advocate and social science professor at Ontario Tech University.