Fourth doses begin at Ottawa long-term care homes as outbreaks grow

Gilles Charest was one of the first Ottawa residents in long-term care to receive a COVID-19 vaccine just over a year ago.

Now there's another COVID-19 outbreak on his unit at Perley Health.

"It feels quite empty and sad and I'm a bit deflated frankly that two years later here we are again," said his daughter Suzanne Charest. 

She says so far two residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and have been moved to a different area to isolate—acknowledging that not every home in Ontario has that option. 

"They are very, very good with infection control measures," Charest said. "After all he's gone through, after all he's survived, and to have COVID as a threat is definitely worrisome."

Ottawa Public Health says it has started giving fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to residents in long-term care and retirement homes, with the goal of reaching them all by the end of January. 

As of Friday, 30 retirement and long-term care homes in Ottawa had active COVID-19 outbreaks. 

Across Ontario, 208 long-term care homes have outbreaks with nearly 2,000 staff unable to work after testing positive. At some homes in Ontario, strict lockdowns have returned. 

"We are back to the horrible days of not only the resumption of deaths from this diseases but also mass staffing shortages, we are confining these residents to their rooms and I've been hearing this for weeks now and it is having a damning, deteriorative effect on these poor residents who are being revictimized again," said long-term care researcher and advocate Vivian Stamatopoulos.

"I think the people who work in long-term care are extraordinary people and they work extraordinarily hard," said Suzanne Charest. "They should certainly be paid what they're due and we can't just call them heroes, we have to really look at the system and see what can be improved in the long term."