“Today, we received the difficult news of the passing of a much-loved and valued team member from Altamont Care Community,” said Altamont Care spokesperson Natalie Gokchenian\u00a0in a statement.<\/p>\n
“On behalf of the entire team at Sienna Senior Living, we extend our deepest condolences to her family, loved ones, and colleagues.”<\/p>\n
The woman who died was a personal support worker who worked at the home for 31 years, said\u00a0Sharleen Stewart, president of SEIU Healthcare, a union that\u00a0represents workers in long-term care homes,<\/p>\n
Stewart said the woman contracted the novel coronavirus in late March and died\u00a0Thursday.<\/p>\n “I’m feeling grief\u00a0but yet I’m so angry at the situation,” Stewart told CBC News.<\/p>\n “Those people, who are predominantly women, get up in the morning and they hope by the end of the day that they don’t get infected … They pray that when they come home they don’t make them sick, that they’re not bringing the virus into the house.”<\/p>\n Stewart said 18 of the deceased woman’s colleagues have also tested positive for COVID-19.<\/p>\n “We’ve got a lot of terrified workers at the home right now afraid that they contracted, or God forbid they end up becoming ill like the co-worker did and passing away through this,” Stewart said.<\/p>\n Last week, a 58-year-old health-care worker\u00a0at Brampton Civic Hospital died of\u00a0complications linked to COVID-19, marking the first time an Ontario hospital confirmed the death of one of its employees amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n William Osler Health System, which operates the hospital,\u00a0made the announcement last Thursday.<\/p>\n “The health-care worker, a long-time [cleaner] with Osler’s Brampton Civic Hospital, was being cared for in Brampton Civic Hospital’s intensive care unit,” the organization said in a statement.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, tens of thousands of long-term care and hospital workers across Ontario will stand in their workplaces for a minute of silence at 11 a.m. on Friday to honour their fallen colleagues.<\/p>\n The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) says they will also reflect on the nearly 1,000 health-care workers \u2014 some of them fellow co-workers \u2014 who have tested positive for COVID-19, and all patients and residents they’re caring for during the pandemic.<\/p>\n CUPE says the health-care workers have a message for Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his health minister: “Much more must be done to protect us before any more are needlessly infected with the coronavirus.”<\/p>\n As of midday Thursday, 980 health-care workers in the province had tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began.<\/p>\n Health-care staff make up about 11 per cent of all reported COVID-19 cases in Ontario but make up only about three per cent of the province’s\u00a0population.<\/p>\n CBC<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.2456444.1386698336!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_780\/sharleen-stewart.jpg\")
<\/div>‘A lot of terrified workers’<\/h2>\n