A long-term care home has been hit hard by COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic.
At this point, 21 residents have died, and half of the residents at Tenderliving Care in Scarborough are infected, along with nearly 50 staff members.
Speaking to our media partner CTV News, a long-term care doctor who went to the home to help out over the weekend says she was floored by what she experienced.
"You're in long-term care because you need help. You need help with either feeding yourself, bathing yourself, going to the washroom, [or] transferring yourself," Dr. Silvy Mathew said, calling the situation at the home "dire." "If you don't have enough personal support workers, then you can't take care of people. You can have food delivered, but somebody has to help you actually eat it."
The home's management told CTV that this outbreak is "extremely trying" and difficult to control when case counts in the community remain high.
The Ministry of Long-term Care says Scarborough Health Network and other healthcare staff have been helping since Dec. 14.
Calls have been growing for military assistance at the home, and when Toronto's chief public officer of health was asked about it today, Dr. de Villa said all options should be on the table.
"It's certainly something that we take very, very seriously. I cannot speak to the specific details of that case… however what we do is we work in partnership and collaboration to the greatest extent possible," she said. "To my mind, all the options are on the table. People do need to explore the full range of control options."
Mayor John Tory acknowledged that this is primarily a provincial mandate, but added that the City will step in to help any way it can.
"I would abide by the advice of the medical officer of health with respect to asking any other government, or any other body or agency, including the hospitals, for help if that's what advice I was given," Tory said. "This is certainly a tragic situation by the description of it, and so if advice is offered that we should ask for help I'll certainly join in making that request for extra help from whoever could provide it to those residents and staff in places like that."