MONTREAL – A group of Canadian media outlets pushed authorities in Canada’s Quebec province yesterday to let them report from inside coronavirus-ravaged hospitals and care homes.
In an open letter to Quebec authorities, 19 French-language broadcasters and publications said access requests for facilities hit by the virus had mainly been rejected.
News releases and daily death counts have failed to convey the severity of outbreaks at these facilities where thousands have died, the letter said, noting that “disturbing images” from Italy in March last year helped the world grasp the “magnitude of the developing health crisis”.
Quebec authorities risk allowing some people “to minimise the severity of Covid-19, to liken its symptoms to that of the common flu, or even to diminish the need to follow public-health directives”.
Canadians should hear directly from embattled doctors, nurses and struggling patients to get an accurate picture of the “harsh realities” of the outbreaks, the letter stated.
As of yesterday, Quebec province has recorded nearly half of the more than 19,000 Covid-19 deaths in Canada, and about one-third of the 750,000 cases.
Many victims – eight in 10 in the first wave of the pandemic – were living in care homes, which earlier this year called in the Canadian army to help look after seniors due to a chronic staff shortage, worsened by the pandemic.
Soldiers said they found horrific conditions. – AFP, January 27, 2021
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