Ontario Premier Doug Ford says that his government will stop at nothing when it comes to protecting long-term care homes in the fight against COVID-19.
The Premier doubled down on his comments that he made during his April 14 press conference on Wednesday, stating that his government will be going all out to fortify the iron ring around long-term care homes.
"We'll go further in our testing, screening and surveillance, targetting the homes facing outbreaks," said Ford.
"We will ensure the staff at these homes have the tools they need. That means strengthening protocols, training and education on infection prevention and control and it means ensuring priority distribution of personal protective equipment. We're getting PPE to long-term care homes within 24 hours or less."
Prevention and preparedness were also highlighted by Ford in the Ontario COVID-19 Action Plan: Long-Term Care Homes, as long-term care homes that have not been impacted by COVID-19 outbreaks will be equipped with a plan to put into play in the event of an outbreak.
"This plan builds on the work we've done to date, emergency funding for hiring more staff, restricting non-essential visitors, 24/7 screening of staff and residents and stepping up cleaning measures," said Ford.
"Last night we passed an emergency order to ensure every employee in long-term care homes can only work in one home."
The COVID-19 Action Plan: Long-Term Care Homes adds critical new measures to prevent further outbreaks and deaths from COVID-19 in long-term care homes, including:
- Aggressive Testing, Screening, and Surveillance: enhancing testing for symptomatic residents and staff and those who have been in contact with persons confirmed to have COVID-19; expanding screening to include more asymptomatic contacts of confirmed cases; and leveraging surveillance tools to enable care providers to move proactively against the disease.
- Managing Outbreaks and Spread of the Disease: supporting long-term care homes with public health and infection control expertise to contain and prevent outbreaks; providing additional training and support for current staff working in outbreak conditions.
- Growing our Heroic Long-Term Care Workforce: redeploying staff from hospitals and home and community care to support the long-term care home workforce and respond to outbreaks, alongside intensive on-going recruitment initiatives.
Additional measures under development will help to ensure preparedness and respond to the situation as it evolves, including improving isolation capacity at long-term care homes.
Within less than 48 hours, the government will immediately act to deliver:
- Enhanced testing and surveillance for symptomatic residents and staff and those in contact with persons confirmed to have COVID-19;
- Testing of asymptomatic residents and staff in select homes across the province to better understand how COVID-19 is spreading;
- Risk and capacity assessments for all homes;
- Working with Ontario Health, the Ontario Hospital Association, and public health units to assemble infection control and preventions teams and additional supports;
- Enhanced guidance on personal protective equipment and continued priority distribution to homes;
- Enhanced training and education to support staff working in outbreak situations; and
- Redeploying hospital and home care resources into homes.
"We must continue to act to stop the spread of this virus in our long-term care homes," said Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care. "Nothing is more important than protecting the health and well-being of our loved ones in long-term care, or the front-line heroes who care for them."
Watch the full press conference below.
