Southwestern Ontario residents do not seem to be pleased with the provincial government’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll.
A survey, conducted on behalf of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) for its Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, asked seven questions to almost 600 residents of London, Waterloo Region, Guelph and Stratford.
About 58 per cent of those who responded to the poll at the beginning of May said the government did not plan properly for the pandemic.
Breaking down the numbers further, 67 per cent of Guelph respondents, 54 per cent of Waterloo respondents, 61 per cent of London respondents and 49 per cent of Stratford respondents said the government did not plan properly.
The results were shared on Monday following a shocking report from military personnel who were sent into nursing homes in Ontario and saw the mistreatment of residents and disregard for infection control measures.
Among those surveyed in the four municipalities, 53 per cent said the government should move long-term care residents with COVID-19 to a hospital for treatment.
CUPE’s president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, Michael Hurley, said the government needs to take a more stringent approach to fight the spread of the virus.
“This needs to be coupled with an aggressive testing program that identifies people who have the virus and moves them into an isolated hospital setting where they can be provided with the best care possible,” he said.
Almost 80 per cent of those surveyed support the government using emergency powers to order companies to produce N95 masks given that they are in short supply and 73 per cent said the government needs to toughen its standards for protecting health-care staff.
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According to CUPE, 4,730 Ontario health-care workers have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 13 of them had died as of Monday.
“It’s really shameful because much of it is easily preventable,” Hurley said.
When asked if Ontario should increase testing for the novel coronavirus, 77 per cent of those polled said yes and 79 per cent said all hospital patients and staff should be tested as well.
Hurley said CUPE is calling on the government to do a number of things such as move anyone with the novel coronavirus out of congregate living settings and into a hospital, start treating COVID-19 as an airborne virus, make sure health-care workers have protections that they need, ramp up testing and order companies to make N95 masks.
“These are all things that we believe would make a difference,” he said.
Ontario reported 404 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 28,263 and the death toll has risen to 2,276 as 10 more deaths were reported.
Ontario has completed 732,720 tests so far for the virus, which is up from 13,379 tests from the previous day. The province has previously said it has a testing capacity of over 20,000 daily tests.
With files from Global’s Gabby Rodrigues.
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Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus.
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