TORONTO Esther Hladkowicz longs to have a proper visit with her father. Waving to him through a window at his Ottawa long-term care home is the closest she s got to him since September and she says the routine has become increasingly painful now that he is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Hladkowicz said her father, who has advanced dementia, will point to the courtyard and ask to come outside when she and her daughter drop by on sunny days. We have a 15, 20 minute visit, just basically telling him why we can t do that, she said. It s cruel. Families and advocates are calling on the Ontario government to loosen the rules around visits to long-term care residents now that most are fully vaccinated against the virus that killed thousands in nursing homes earlier in the pandemic.
TORONTO Graduation has been the topic of conversation between 17-year-old Anoosha Keshav and her friends for months. After their last two years of high school were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mississauga, Ont., teen and her peers crave a little normalcy to mark the end of this stage in their lives not another pared down, online-only event. It comes up in almost every conversation, she said. The fact that it s going to be a pre-recorded video you ll have to watch, it s really disappointing. It s not motivational, you know, because we re almost there at the end, and it s really sad that this is how our graduation is going to be.