Ontarians will be able to visit loved ones in long-term care and retirement homes starting next week if they test negative for COVID-19.
Premier Doug Ford, along with Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton announced a new plan on Thursday that will allow people to visit long-term care, retirement homes and other congregate living settings where there aren’t COVID-19 outbreaks.
Those visits will be allowed to start on June 18.
Long-term care homes that are not in an outbreak — defined as any more than a single case — will allow one visitor per resident, once a week in an outdoor setting.
“We need families to be able to see their loved ones and today we’re taking the first steps to help reunite families, to help reunite loved ones in the safest way possible,” said Ford at Thursday’s news conference.
Retirement homes will be able to resume indoor and outdoor visits in resident units or designated areas, while other residential care settings will allow outdoor visits of two people at a time as long as physical distancing can be maintained.
Minster of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton announced a “responsible” plan to allow visitors into long-term care and retirement homes during the provinces’ daily briefing on Thursday. 1:34
This new measure comes with many strict conditions for visitors. All visitors must have tested negative for the novel coronavirus in the past two weeks, complete a health questionnaire, and during the visit, must wear a face mask or covering, maintain a safe physical distance, and wash or disinfect their hands.
All congregate care homes also need to meet strict conditions before welcoming visitors. In addition to not being in an outbreak, homes must have an established process for communicating safety protocol and procedures to visitors and maintain strict infection prevention and control measures.
“I know this is a day we have all been desperately waiting for but we can’t take this progress for granted,” said Ford.
“I ask everyone to be cautious and act responsibility as the battle to contain COVID-19 is not over and the risk to our loved ones still remains.
Other residential care homes that will be allowed visitors under similar rules include homes serving people with developmental disabilities, shelters for survivors of gender-based violence, and children’s residential settings.
Meanwhile, Ontario public health officials have tracked COVID-19 outbreaks in a total of 316 long-term care facilities, though 77 remain active.
The newly confirmed infections mark the fewest seen on a single day since March 28 and just a 0.6 per cent increase in total cases.
More than 82 per cent, or some 25,885, of Ontario’s cumulative cases are resolved. There were twice as many recoveries, 505, than additional confirmed infections reported yesterday.
The province’s network of labs processed 24,341 tests, nearly reaching the system’s capacity of 25,000 on any given day. Another 16, 359 are in the queue waiting to be processed.
Further, there are currently 3,172 active cases in the province, the fewest since new daily cases started to rise again in mid-May.
Some 78 per cent of Ontario’s active cases are concentrated in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), while another 12 per cent are in other regions not moving forward into the next stage of reopening tomorrow.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said during a COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, that the regions not moving forward to Stage 2 will be assessed on a weekly basis.
“Some of [the regions] that are in Stage 1, held back for the week, will be considered to move up to Stage 2 depending on how their data moves and shifts,” Williams said.
Any changes to the status of the regions still in Stage 1 will be announced on Monday, with the changes taking effect the following Friday.
“We’d rather go stalwartly forward, rather than jumping forward [and] going back,” he said.
Meanwhile, the number of patients in Ontario hospitals with confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to drop, falling by 42 down to 538 — the fewest since April 5.
The number of those being treated in intensive care units and with ventilators both remained relatively steady at 120 and 87, respectively.
Ontario’s official death toll grew by 12 to 2,487. It’s the third straight day that the official count has increased by fewer than 15 deaths. A CBC News count based on data compiled directly from regional public health units, however, puts the real current death toll at 2,543.
Nearly 79 per cent of all deaths in the province were residents of long-term care homes.
Premier, health minister test negative
Meanwhile, Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott both tested negative for COVID-19, Ford’s office said today.
Lecce had an assessment completed in Toronto after learning he had recently been in contact with a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19. In a statement, a spokesperson for Lecce’s office said that he will remain in isolation for two weeks from the time of exposure, June 6 to June 20, and monitor for any potential symptoms.
Ford and Elliot are scheduled to be at today’s daily COVID-19 briefing at Queen’s Park.
“To be clear, both Premier Ford and Minister Elliott have had no known contact with anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and as a result, there is no need for either of them to self-isolate,” said Ivana Yelich, spokesperson for Ford’s office, in an email.
Ontario appoints new patient ombudsman
Meanwhile, the provincial government announced today that it has appointed a new patient ombudsman.
The role sat vacant for two years after Elliott, who was appointed to the position by the previous Liberal government, resigned in 2018 to run in the Progressive Conservative leadership race. The office continued to operate, however.
Cathy Fooks will step into the job effective July 13, the province said. Fooks has been the president and CEO of The Change Foundation, an independent health policy think tank based in Toronto, since 2007. Before that, she served as executive director of the now-defunct Health Council of Canada, a public reporting agency focused on health-care reform.
Her term as patient ombudsman will last five years, though the government can renew after that period.
Ontario is recommending passengers wear face coverings or non-medical masks on public transit to fight the spread of COVID-19.
It also urges commuters to practice physical distancing and hand washing, and the installation of barriers between drivers and passengers along with frequent cleanings.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
