Quebec may never get the full story behind COVID-19 care home deaths, coroner warns
Global News
Kamel expressed shock that after a yearlong investigation, there seemed to be no consensus from witnesses on the timeline of how the government responded to the health crisis.
Quebec coroner Géhane Kamel said Monday that grieving families may never get the full story behind the thousands of deaths that occurred in long-term care homes during the first wave of COVID-19.
Kamel expressed shock that after a yearlong investigation, there seemed to be no consensus from witnesses on the timeline of how the government responded to the health crisis or where blame should lie for the tragedy.
Her comments came after a former manager with the Health Department told the inquest on Monday that the Quebec government only became aware of the risk COVID-19 posed to long-term care homes in mid-March 2020.
Martin Simard’s testimony backed up that of Seniors Minister Marguerite Blais, but it contradicted the testimony of other prominent witnesses, including the province’s ex-public health director and former health minister, who both said the province knew of the risk in late January.
Simard said that written internal communication on COVID-19 preparation from January was aimed at the network as a whole and did not focus specifically on the care homes, known as CHSLDs.
Kamel has been examining the deaths of elderly and vulnerable people in seven residential settings during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as investigating the government’s response to the outbreaks.
On Monday, Kamel said she was “flabbergasted” at the statements she had heard and at the inability of some witnesses to admit that care homes had been a “blind spot” in the government’s response.
“It’s been a year that what we’ve been told is, ‘I can’t tell you, I can’t say, and it may not be our department or our group that was managing,”’ she said.