Briefing
There was no press conference today, but the Nova Scotia government announced three more COVID-19-related deaths at the Northwood long-term-care facility (LTCF) in Halifax, bringing total deaths at the facility to 38 and total deaths across the province to 44.
The province also announced nine new cases of COVID-19, although the number in the Eastern Zone, which includes Cape Breton, remains unchanged at 50. (I tried to get a breakdown from Public Health as to how many of those 50 cases are active, but they would not tell me.)
Numbers
Total new cases: 9
Total cases: 1,007
Total hospitalized: 5
Total in ICU: 2
Total recovered: 708
Total deaths: 44
Total long-term-care facilities (LTCF) affected: 3
LTCF residents: 156 (Northwood)
LTCF staff: 44 (Northwood) 2 (other LTC facilities)
Total positive and negative tests to date: 33,296
Age range of patients: under 10 to over 90
Northwood
Northwood CEO Janet Simms posted an information update on the facility on Wednesday in which she added the statistic of “resident recoveries” to the numbers the facility releases. As of May 6, these stood at 74. Of these, 26 are being housed on the offsite recovery unit which she says can accommodate up to 29 residents.
Simms and Josie Ryan, director of long-term care, held a press conference with media yesterday which you can watch on the website.
Low-wage yet essential
Setting aside the question of how the phrase “low-wage essential worker” can even be a thing, I would like to note that the federal government has pledged up to $3 billion to provide such workers with “a much-needed wage boost.”
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that all provinces and territories have confirmed, or are in the process of confirming, plans to cost share wage top-ups for their essential workers.
The Government of Canada will provide up to $3 billion in support to increase the wages of low-income essential workers. Each province or territory will determine which workers would be eligible for support, and how much support they will receive.
Premier Stephen McNeil, who’s been content to let the federal government do the heavy financial lifting throughout this pandemic, stepping in with a business loan here and a rent deferral program there, is claiming credit for having “lobbied” the federal government for the “flexibility” to use the federal top-up program to allow it to reward its essential healthcare workers (something other provinces have already done). Nova Scotia’s version of the program (for which it, like other provinces and territories, is expected to provide 25% of the funding) will look like this:
The Essential Health Care Workers Program will see health-care workers receive a bonus of up to $2,000 after a four-month period, beginning March 13. It includes eligible employees at the Nova Scotia Health Authority, IWK Health Centre and in long-term care, home care and in-home support and emergency health services. Employees who volunteered to be redeployed to work at a facility experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak will also receive this benefit.
The program is expected to benefit up to 43,000 health-care workers in the province. The Department of Health and Wellness will work with its partners to deliver the money.
Does the word “bonus” sound alarm bells for you? Are we calling it a “bonus” rather than a “wage increase” to head off demands it should be made permanent?
Once you’ve declared workers to be both essential and poorly paid, can you walk it back?
(Here’s a hint: according to Zane Woodford, the province has stopped paying for hotel rooms for homeless people in Halifax.)
Continuing Care Stats
I found Spring 2019 presentation by Susan Stevens, senior director of Continuing Care with the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), which offers some useful information on continuing care — long-term-care and home care — in this province.
These two slides provide an interesting comparison of the average age of those admitted to home care (some of whom, as noted, are children) and the average age of those admitted to LTC facilities:
So far, all but two of the COVID-19-related deaths in Nova Scotia have taken place in long-term-care facilities which suggests that one of the bright spots in an otherwise bleak landscape may be home care.
And according to this presentation from 2018, we’re talking about a lot of people — 29,067 clients (15,000 of whom are receiving care on any given day.) By way of comparison, the 2018 presentation says there are 7,851 long-term-care beds — 6,923 nursing home beds and 927 residential care facility beds — in the province.
I promise to look into this in more detail and get back to you.
