Seniors in B.C. care face high COVID-19 death risk

VICTORIA - British Columbia's seniors advocate says long-term care and assisted living residents are three and a half times more likely to contract COVID-19 and 33 times more likely to die of the disease.

Isobel Mackenzie's figures come from a report released today that recommends expanding paid sick-leave provisions for staff, hiring more registered nurses, eliminating shared rooms and increasing the scope and frequency of COVID-19 testing.

Two of her key recommendations — mandatory vaccines for all staff and booster shots for residents — are in progress.

Mackenzie's report covered the pandemic period from March 2020 to February 2021, recording 4,484 COVID-19 cases at care facilities and 782 deaths.

Recent data posted by the province's Centre for Disease Control says there were 368 COVID-19 outbreaks at B.C. care facilities from January 2020 to September 2021 and 1,092 deaths of residents.

Mackenzie says while everybody has been affected by the ongoing pandemic, seniors, particularly those living in care facilities, have felt the deepest impact since they are disproportionately at risk of serious illness from COVID-19 or death.