Military reports 39 cases of COVID-19 in members working in nursing homes

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian military will keep assisting in nursing homes in Ontario and Quebec, though 39 members of the Canadian Forces have come down with COVID-19 while doing so.

That’s up from 28 cases of the novel coronavirus among those troops less than a week ago, and three more cases than were confirmed Monday.

The military has been deployed to nursing homes in the two provinces to reinforce workers overwhelmed by the illness, unable to keep up with residents’ needs because of all the protective measures they need to take, or off work because they’re ill themselves.

According to data released Tuesday afternoon, 15 of the military members with COVID-19 are in Ontario and 24 of them are in Quebec.

When the Forces started reporting the number of positive cases, they said they’d update the figures every two weeks but have revised that plan to give new numbers every day.

Trudeau says the premiers of Ontario and Quebec have both asked for the military to extend the deployment and he expects to agree.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020.

The Canadian Press