By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press on March 27, 2020.
Specimens to be tested for COVID-19 are seen at LifeLabs after being logged upon receipt at the company’s lab, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. LifeLabs is Canada’s largest private provider of diagnostic testing for health care. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckTORONTO – The steadily growing case load of COVID-19 infections in Canada surpassed 4,000 on Friday amid questions about fatalities that may not be counted as resulting from the pandemic.
Two residents of a nursing home in Bobcaygeon, Ont., who had symptoms of the flu-like illness have died but neither was tested for the coronavirus. In fact, the Pinecrest Nursing Home said only three others were tested and confirmed positive, while 35 residents have coronavirus symptoms.
The highly contagious virus is known to be particularly dangerous for the elderly and those with compromised health. Deadly outbreak clusters in nursing homes have also been reported in British Columbia.
To date, 43 people have died in Canada as a result of COVID-19, health authorities have reported. But the true number could be obscured.
As with other long-term care facilities, residents at Pinecrest share rooms, making isolation difficult. Tending to the ill has also become a major challenge. At least 14 staff at the home have tested positive, while the results for 16 others are pending, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit said.
“This is truly a horrible time for the families and friends of the residents, as well as our staff,” said Mary Carr, administrator of Pinecrest.
The grim health impacts of the pandemic has also resulted in a shrivelling economy, lower interest rates and a sharply higher federal deficit as the government prepares to inject multiple billions to cushion the unprecedented impact.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday the government would now cover 75 per cent of salaries for workers of qualifying small businesses affected by COVID-19, an increase from the 10 per cent announced earlier that critics said was too little to have an impact.
The surge in government spending will have a profound impact on the federal deficit in the coming fiscal year. Parliament’s budget watchdog on Friday projected the deficit would reach $112.7 billion – quadruple what it would have otherwise been. The office also predicted the economy would contract by 5.1 per cent this year, which would be the worst showing since 1962.
In an effort to keep cash flowing in the system, the Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 50 points to 0.25 per cent – effectively to near zero.
“Low interest rates help to cushion the shock by easing the cost of borrowing,” Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said. “The intent of our decision today is two-fold: to immediately support the financial system so it keeps on providing credit, and, over the longer term, to lay the foundation for the economy’s return to normalcy.”
Latest numbers show 18 COVID deaths among 1,000 cases have occurred in Ontario, the most fatalities in the country. Quebec, with eight deaths, has reported the most cases at 1,629 – around double that seen in Ontario and British Columbia, which has had 14 deaths, most among the elderly. Two fatalities have been reported in Alberta and one in Manitoba.
Only Nunavut has not confirmed any infections to date.
Governments and experts have urged people – in some cases backed up by the threat of fines or jail time – to keep their distance from one another. Travellers entering Canada are required to quarantine for 14 days.
The crisis has been keeping police busy, sometimes in unusual ways. For example, police in Hamilton charged a teenaged McDonald’s employee with fraud, mischief and uttering a forged document for allegedly faking a doctor’s note that she had the virus. The outlet was forced to shut down for several days while it was sanitized.
In New Brunswick, police charged a man with assault for allegedly coughing in someone’s face. Kennebecasis regional police say they had responded to a call about people failing to isolate themselves after returning from abroad as is mandatory. The man was arrested for allegedly uttering threats and “purposely coughing in someone’s face while feeling ill.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 27, 2020.
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