Long-term care homes were ‘blind spot’ in preparing for COVID-19, Quebec ombudsman saysIn the end, Gagné said 175 workers had to be brought in from elsewhere to fill the vacant posts.Authorities also had a hard time securing testing in the initial days of the pandemic. “Initially, there was only the national laboratory in Winnipeg that could confirm a case,” said Dr.
Jean-Pierre Trépanier, the public health director for Laval. While a few more labs eventually began analyzing tests, the delay to receive results was several days.Trépanier said that at the time, priority for testing was given to travellers returning from abroad, and long-term care was secondary to hospitals, where there was a fear of large outbreaks.On April 3, 2020, the.