It’s been more than 800 days since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. No one knew the chaos and confusion that lay ahead, or when the collective nightmare would end.
Now, many Canadians have noticed an acceptable return to a sense of normalcy, but the world is still learning and navigating this new reality.
In “Your Road Ahead,” CHCH News examines how the virus has disrupted everyone’s life and pushed our peak critical resources to their limits, but also the processes put in place to recover and the work that remains to be done.
Education
Online learning has the new truth as schools closed in March 2020 when Ontario declared a state of emergency.
Between March 2020 and May 2021, Ontario schools were closed for 20 weeks, adding to more regional closures. This is longer than in any other Canadian province or territory.
The closures then returned the following year with the Omicron variant extending the winter break.
Experts say academics suffer from “learning loss,” meaning a loss of wisdom and skills due to the absence of the classroom. They say time spent in isolation at home has also led to behavioral problems.
While there are still demanding situations to make up for lost time, teachers at Fitch Street Public School say their students are starting to bounce back now that they are back in the classroom.
Dawn Danko, chair of the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, says the Ministry of Education has since made investments for academics and recovered from the loss of learning.
Healthcare
The tragedy of the pandemic has obviously spread to the maximum in hospitals and long-term care facilities.
More than a third of all COVID-19 deaths in Ontario occurred in long-term care facilities. Ontario says as of June 14, 4587 citizens have died, along with 11 workers.
Meanwhile, physical care staff were on the front lines of the fight against the virus. With large numbers of other people ending up in the hospital with COVID-19, health staff were forced to work and extensive care teams were pushed to their limits.
The strain on hospitals has led to severe burnout among physical care workers. A recent survey by the Ontario Association of Registered Nurses found that the point of burnout has risen to 75. 3 per cent. More than a quarter of nurses reported being absent to manage stress. anxiety or other intellectual fitness issues, while 69% said they planned to leave their position within five years.
In addition, Ontario hospitals have faced a large backlog of elective surgeries. Currently, around 1400 young people and 6000 adults are waiting for surgery.
To help with the delay, Hamilton Health Sciences will begin performing certain procedures usually performed in Hamilton at West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby.
back to the office
The pandemic has replaced the way we do our work, whether it’s workplace staff conducting Zoom meetings from their living rooms or frontline staff who have to adhere to protocols. Experts say some of those adjustments are very likely to persist.
Employers are now guilty of figuring out how to technique the return to the office. They will have to continue to work remotely, maintain mask mandates and other protocols, or even have a vaccination mandate in place.
Remote paintings have made the line between running and not running very thin. Since then, the provincial government has stepped in to address the problem. A policy on the right to disconnect has been added to the Ontario Labour Standards Act. Now, employers with 25 or more employees will need to have a written policy in place.
The new rule went into effect Jan. 1 with a deadline to take effect the new policy on June 2.
What does it mean to disconnect from work? The Ontario government says this means a worker has no interaction in work-related communications such as emails, phone calls/video calls, and sending/reviewing messages.
Traveler
As regulations and restrictions continue to relax, other people are temporarily returning to explore the world, yet Canada’s busiest airport has struggled to stay active.
People experienced longer-than-expected wait times at Pearson International Airport in April and May. The Canadian Air Transport Safety Authority blamed on understaffing.
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada says the shortage is the result of staff leaving the industry when it closed due to the pandemic.
Transport Canada responded by postponing mandatory random testing of incoming travelers until July 1, when they will return to locations outside airports.
The federal government also finalized the vaccination mandate for domestic and outbound travelers, but the mandate remains for those entering Canada and the ArriveCAN app will still need to be used.
Complicating plans is also a major challenge at the passport office. Long lines of other people waiting all day to renew their passports, to be rejected.
Authorities are recently in the process of hiring much more staff for Service Canada locations to assist in the situation.
Management of incorrect information and disinformation
A huge piece of this pandemic puzzle has been communicating to the public a complex and changing situation. What complicates things even more is that, depending on where you get the information, the message presented is very different.
The pandemic has sparked occupations in Ottawa, an anti-vaccine motion, and a lot of distrust of the media.
The president of the Canadian Association of Journalists says many media outlets create disdata sets that deny online claims that the data is false, as well as data verification sets so that all incoming and outgoing data is accurate. However, he says the fight against disdata after the pandemic will be an uphill battle.
As we envision a post-pandemic life, it is transparent that the aftermath of COVID-19 will remain with us in our schools, hospitals, buildings, airports, and in our newsroom as we try to provide them with the latest news about this ongoing issue. recovery.