Province seeing more people die of COVID-19 at home, Ontario’s chief coroner says
Posted April 22, 2021 4:04 pm.
Last Updated April 22, 2021 8:15 pm.
A shocking and grim new reality in Ontario when it comes to the spread of COVID-19 as people are now dying of the virus in their homes.
Ontario’s chief coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer says the numbers have been in the range of two per day over the past two weeks in excess of anything we saw in wave one or wave two.
“Many of these people were found deceased,” Dr. Huyer says.
“Many have either had a positive test or are associated with people who are were test positive and that they have had symptoms and then those symptoms have been present, not to the extent that were recognized as necessarily requiring hospitalization, and then they were found deceased and later in the day or in the morning.”
Ontario has issued two emergency orders aimed at boosting staff at hospitals dealing with a surge in COVID-19 cases during the third wave of the pandemic.
One order will allow out-of-province health workers to practice in Ontario without registering with regulatory colleges in the province.
The government made a plea last week for other provinces seeing fewer cases to send in medical personnel and says it’s had tentative offers of help from three Atlantic provinces.
It also passed an order allowing health care workers to provide patient care outside their regular scope of practice, which will allow staff from Ontario health facilities to be redeployed to hospitals.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government is prepared to deploy the Canadian Red Cross to help Ontario with their mobile vaccination teams and send aid to hospitals and long-term care homes.
That was quickly denied by Premier Doug Ford, who said the province has a vaccine supply issue and not a capacity issue.
The government had announced last week’s latest restrictions amid soaring COVID-19 cases and an alarming rise in people in hospital and intensive care.
Critics were especially incensed at the government handing police the power to stop people at random to ask why they were out during the province’s stay-at-home order.
Premier Doug Ford said Thursday the measures had been brought in too fast in response to dire COVID-19 projections.
“We moved too quick; if I make a mistake, I correct it immediately,” Ford said. “I’m sorry and I apologize to each and everyone of you.”
The premier also confirmed that his government was working on a sick-leave program to support workers, although he did not provide a timeline or any further specifics.
With files from The Canadian Press
