Another long-term care facility in the GTA is dealing with multiple deaths from the Covid-19 virus.
The Eatonville Care Centre, located at 420 The East mall in Etobicoke, released a statement Monday night confirming 25 of its residents have now died due to the virus.
The statement also acknowledged that there are another 49 confirmed cases at the centre, with six tests pending.
The Centre houses 247 residents.
The statement was issued by Executive Director Evelyn MacDonald.
In an update sent out to residents’ families Sunday, Eatonville reported that there were 14 deaths at the facility.
“Public Health has confirmed that nine residents who had previously passed away due to unknown causes, have now been attributed to COVID-19. This has been reflected in our reported total number of cases, but does not represent new deaths attributed to the virus,” she said in the statement.
News of the deaths and numbers seem to catch many off guard, including Jane Bayley, whose parents both live at the centre and have both contracted the virus, despite living in quarantine in their room for the past four weeks.
Bayley told our media partner CP24 Monday night, she believes Public Health offficials have not kept up with testing at the facility and haven't been forthcoming about the actual number of cases.
"The numbers are very very skewed. I think that Public Health has been holding back the tests, which is what Doug Ford was alluding to last week and now miraculously, Eatonville has finally received a whole bunch of tests today. There's well well over 100 people at Eatonville and I know for a fact that maybe only a couple of residents a week, if they had symptoms, were being tested."
MacDonald attributed the sudden jump in cases to changes in provincial testing criteria.
She said the facility is working with public health “to manage this outbreak appropriately.”
with files from CP24