The number of active cases of COVID-19 among residents of Ontario long-term-care homes is growing at an average rate of about eight per cent per day, prompting seniors advocates to call for measures to prevent a full-blown second wave of infections from sweeping through facilities.

There were 216 active resident infections in the province’s long-term-care homes as of Oct. 20, up from just under five on Sept. 1. That represents an average daily growth rate of 7.99 per cent between those dates. (Since the official provincial numbers for Sept. 5 indicate less than five infections, we have assumed five for ease of calculation.)

At the same time, the number of homes with active outbreaks currently sits at 86, up from 13 on Sept. 1, with a high of 87 homes reached on Oct. 19. Sixty residents have died of COVID-19 since the beginning of September.

“It shouldn’t be about the numbers. It’s the fact that this is happening again and we’re on the trajectory headed towards a déjà vu of what happened in the first wave,” said Vivian Stamatopoulos, an associate professor at Ontario Tech University and a family caregiver advocate. “Not enough was learned and the kinds of policies and supports we needed didn’t happen. This is preventable.”

Stamatopoulos stressed that good training, better working conditions and decent salaries are needed to make personal support work in long-term-care homes more attractive.

Earlier this month, the provincial government announced a $461-million plan to improve recruitment of PSWs and others who do similar work in health care by increasing wages ($2 increases for those working in public hospitals and $3 for home and community-care workers). It’s a measure Stamatopoulos called “a very big Band-aid for the gunshot wound that is long-term care.”

“It doesn’t attract more workers,” she said. “Sure, they get a little bit of a bump, but their working conditions remain the same.”

Those working conditions include long hours, high stress, and a constant fear of making mistakes, in addition to “desperately inadequate” staffing, said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, a non-profit network of public-health-care advocates.

“They’re rushed all the time, the stress never stops,” she said, adding that one PSW might be responsible for looking after anywhere between eight and 30 residents, depending on staffing levels. “It’s terrifying. They go home and think, ‘oh my God, did I put up the guardrail on that bed? Did I chart this?’”

There is also the fear that they too could be infected with COVID-19 if there are cases in the home. “They are at risk themselves,” Mehra said of PSWs.