NIA launches COVID-19 Long-Term Care Tracking Map and Resources
TORONTO – Today, Dr. Samir Sinha along with a team of researchers and volunteers at the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) launched a COVID-19 tracking map and a compilation of expert resources specifically for the long-term care (LTC) sector in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nursing and retirement homes have been the most tragic sites of this crisis and it is far from over for the residents and care providers of these homes. In Ontario alone, deaths in its nursing and retirement homes represent almost 75 per cent of the total deaths from COVID-19,” said Sinha. “The sector has been at the front lines of this pandemic with a lack of open access to timely data, leaving too many residents, families, care providers and their hospital resource partners in the dark on the status of the pandemic across Ontario and Canadian care homes.”
This publicly accessible COVID-19 tracking map, built in collaboration with Empower Health (external link) , will facilitate the prevention and management of COVID-19 amongst nursing and retirement homes, emergency responders, hospitals, regional health authorities and public health units. The NIA tracking map compiles the best available data from multiple sources including public health units, the media, and information publicly posted by these homes and by what they share more directly with their residents, families and staff. It is updated daily with the number of resident and staff cases and deaths associated with any of Ontario’s retirement and long-term care homes and provides total counts for Canada and its other individual provinces and territories.
“Information is power, especially during a pandemic where social distancing is necessary, said Ryan Doherty, President and Founder of Empower Health. “We are hoping to empower family members, media, the broader public, and even local healthcare organizations with an easy way to navigate up-to-date and reliable information about the impact and recovery of COVID-19.”
Looking to the future, the NIA will build on its existing, ‘Future of Long-Term Care’ series by using the platform and information compiled over time to provide policy recommendations to address many of the systemic vulnerabilities exacerbated by this crisis.
The tracker can be accessed at https://ltc-covid19-tracker.ca (external link) .
The National Institute on Ageing is a Ryerson University think tank focused on the realities of Canada’s ageing population.
Media contact: Arianne Persaud| 647-966-1302 |Communications and Public Affairs Manager| arianne.persaud@torontomu.ca| Twitter: @RyersonNIA (external link)