Established 1961 7 Sunday, April 19, 2020 International Horrors revealed at virus-hit Canada nursing home; 31 die Elderly residents left soiled and unfed as caregivers flee

MONTREAL: Elderly residents left soiled and unfed ther, who is believed to have contracted coronavirus a after their caregivers fled the premises, 31 deaths in week before his death, as he sounded weaker and the space of a few weeks: a nursing home in Montreal weaker on the phone each time they spoke. Davis says has become the symbol of the terrible toll coronavirus Residence Herron is a “poster child for what is wrong is taking in Canada’s long-term care homes. The bleak in our senior health care”-but she is also certain it is not situation discovered at the Residence Herron, in the unique. “There are other homes, I am sure, in every Montreal suburb of Dorval, has triggered an investi- country of the world, where families have experienced gation for gross negligence and a national reckoning a similar situation.” “It scares me, it terrifies me to think about the conditions in long-term care homes which that I am 60 years of age, and I may someday end up account for half the coun- in one of these homes.” try’s more than 1,250 COVID-19 deaths. “I was ‘Gross negligence’ sick to my stomach, I was In announcing the fatali- really sick to my stomach,” ties this week, Quebec Pre- Moira Davis, whose father Bleak situation mier Francois Legault said it Stanley Pinnell died at the appeared to be a case of Herron facility on April 8, triggers probe “gross negligence”: just two told AFP. nurses had been left to care “All of a sudden these for 130 elderly residents. questions started flying Further fuelling public out- through my head, ‘What rage, Canadian media also could we have done differ- revealed that the home’s ently? Why did nobody tell us?... Why, why, why?’” owner had once been convicted of drug trafficking, DORVAL, Canada: This photo taken on April 16, 2020 shows flowers outside the Herron private nursing Called to the rescue after most of the staff deserted fraud and tax evasion. For families, shock and anger home west of Montreal. — AFP the facility, health authorities found residents dehy- mixed with the frustration of having been powerless drated, unfed for days and lying listless in bed, some to do anything, kept away by a ban on visits to the covered in excrement. Others had fallen to the floor. home to avoid contamination. hours because no one responded” to the emergency overcome with fear “that my mother could suddenly Two deaths had gone unnoticed for several days. At Local health authorities have now taken control of button and her cries for help, Peter Wheeland told AFP, die.” Connie Wheeland has since been transferred to a least five of the 31 recent deaths at the home have the facility, and a Can$5 million class action has been adding that she had diarrhea, one of the symptoms of hospital where she was diagnosed with COVID-19. been officially attributed to the virus, with the others launched against the owner alleging “inhumane and the new coronavirus. “We weren’t able to communicate She will not return to Herron. Rather than continue to still being investigated by a coroner. degrading maltreatment” for failing to ensure contin- with anyone: We called the nurses’ station, we left mes- pay the home Can$45,000 each year, once she recov- From her home in Creighton, Saskatchewan, Davis ued and adequate care. “On April 7, my mother was sages, we did everything we could do to reach them ers her son plans to set her up in an apartment and hire said she became concerned about her 86-year-old fa- left in her wheelchair with a full, soiled diaper for three and there was no answer,” he said, recalling being a private nurse to care for her. —AFP

the kits, along with protective gloves, German virus Chinese help disinfectant wipes and Chinese tradi- tional medicine. The Chinese embassy in Paris insisted in a statement that patients are the gets wary there was nothing illegal. It was doing “its best... to defend the rights and le- ‘lucky’ ones reception gitimate interests of Chinese compatri- ots in France.”

AACHEN: After making it through the first PARIS: An operation by France’s Chi- ‘Chinese health diplomacy’ night breathing on her own, 60-year-old nese community to help the diaspora The health crisis has strained ties Martina Hamacher can only say: “I’ve been during the coronavirus outbreak by between Paris and Beijing. France this lucky.” One of Germany’s earliest coron- distributing masks, disinfectant and week summoned the Chinese ambassa- avirus patients, Hamacher is still tangled in gloves has prompted questions and dor to protest a string of controversial some of the tubes and cables that helped legal problems for some of its backers. comments by Beijing’s embassy in Paris keep her alive for 20 days in intensive care. Sceptical of the French government’s on France’s handling of the coronavirus. “I’ve made it this far,” she says with a slight response to the epidemic, the Chinese And French President Emmanuel smile in Aachen’s university hospital. Things embassy, business leaders and ex-pat Macron told the Financial Times that could have been worse for Hamacher had associations have handed out so-called things “happened that we don’t know she not been treated in Germany, where the “COVID kits”, masks and other protec- about” in the response to the virus by response to the crisis has been internation- tive equipment to their compatriots. China, where the pandemic originated. AACHEN, Germany: Medical staff take care of a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care ally admired. Despite a high number of in- But this landed some in trouble with The “COVID kit” initiative came in re- unit at the university hospital of Aachen on April 15, 2020. — AFP fections, the death toll has been much lower the law. Among the masks given out sponse to a letter dated March 31, in than in France, Italy or the United States. were the highly sought-after FFP2 the form of an urgent appeal signed by Experts have credited Berlin for wide- doctors and nurses work in their epidemic from Bergamo (in northern Italy) were hor- type, which in times of critical supply about 20 bodies representing France- spread testing and ample capacity for pa- armor of masks, gloves, caps and protective rifying. We were determined not to let that shortages have been reserved for med- based Chinese people, whom they tients stricken with the respiratory illness. suits. “This is part of our duty that we’re liv- become the reality here.” Within a few days, ical personnel on the frontlines of judged to be “in danger”. Such large-scale efforts appear to have paid ing up to,” said a nurse named Kathi. the number of ICU beds surged from 96 to France’s coronavirus battle. Early in the Faced with “the inability (of the off, with patients receiving world-class care Aachen has 51 coronavirus patients at 136, an increase matched by other German outbreak, France had requisitioned all French authorities) to take appropriate by medical staff who have stayed on top of present, 35 of them in intensive care. “It’s medical facilities. face mask stocks and production for protective measures”, said the authors the crisis. The hospital in Aachen has even important to me that this isn’t only tied up A further 70 places could be quickly set distribution to doctors, nurses and of the letter, penned in Mandarin, they been able to take patients from Belgium and with death and technology,” says ICU di- up if needed, but the country already had caregivers. Yet on April 5, police in were launching an appeal for “certain the Netherlands. “I’m very grateful for what rector Gernot Marx. “We bring most peo- 11,000 free intensive care beds from a na- Paris detained two representatives of protective products and medical mate- the doctors and nurses did, without them I ple back to life, not because of all the tionwide total of 25,000. “We were always Chinese associations for possession of rials”. Two days after it was sent out, don’t think I’d still be here,” Hamacher says. machines we have but because of people prepared to take people in,” Marx says. some 15,000 masks. the Chinese embassy in Paris launched who know what they’re doing, who commit More than 3,800 people have died in Ger- Two days later, three students were a distribution program of “COVID ‘Doing our duty’ themselves so strongly.” many out of more than 133,000 confirmed arrested while handing out Chinese kits”, using students who organize de- Sleeping patients unable to survive infections, a rate well below other big Euro- embassy-sponsored “COVID kits” in liveries with the help of popular Chi- without assistance can be seen through yel- Intense preparations pean Union countries such as France or the Paris suburbs, an operation which nese messaging app WeChat. There are low sliding doors that open into two-bed The Aachen hospital’s experience with Spain. And since April 12, more people have caused people to amass in contraven- 125,000 Chinese nationals living in intensive care units (ICU) at the hospital. coronavirus began slowly, Marx recounts. been declared disease-free each day than tion of France’s strict social distancing France on residency permits, a small Amid constant beeping at different pitches “We understood that we could and must use new infections have been reported, Health regulations to stem the virus spread. proportion of all foreigners residing in and volumes from life-support machines, the time to prepare, because the images Minister Jens Spahn said Friday. — AFP FFP2 masks were included in some of the country. — AFP

fragile ruling coalition, made up of the centre-left a proposal from Italy, Spain, and France for a joint bor- While the PD is in favour of using the ESM, part of the Will Italy’s virus Democratic Party and anti-establishment Five Stars rowing instrument, dubbed a “coronabond”, that would Five Stars Movement is stridently opposed, with party Movement. And opposition leader Salvini has resumed have raised money towards a recovery after the out- leader Vito Crimi saying in an interview on Wednesday his virulent attacks on the government, along with break. The bonds could reduce Italy’s borrowing costs, that Conte’s premiership was at risk over it. Analysts epidemic fuel Giorgia Meloni, head of the small far-right Brothers of but northern nations say they unfairly help countries say the PM is gambling on getting more attractive aid Italy party, which has been enjoying a sharp rise in that had been spending beyond their means for years. from the EU if he drags his feet over the ESM. Conte far right? popularity. Bitter spats have broken out over the length That has incensed many Italians. Italy also felt aban- said Wednesday no decision would be taken before the of the economically-crippling lockdown, which has doned at the start of the crisis, with European coun- exact conditions are drawn up and can be studied by been extended by Conte and is currently due to be tries reluctant to share much-needed medical supplies, parliament. Italy has said it will use other resources on ROME: Italy is staring down the barrel of the worst lifted on May 4, after a near two-month stoppage. Mil- for which the EU Commission president offered a offer from the EU, such as unemployment support. recession since World War II, which could bolster the lions of Italians are either furloughed or have lost their “heartfelt apology” this week. A Tecne poll from April But it was not clear his assurance would soften the far-right and damage the country’s love affair with the jobs, and the northern regions - League strongholds - 9 and 10 found the share of Italians that would vote to rumblings of discontent inside and outside the govern- European Union, analysts say. Much will depend on are champing at the bit to re-open. leave the EU in a referendum was up by 20 percentage ment. According to political analyst Stefano Folli, a frac- how Rome handles the easing of the national lock- A delay in shutting several virus hotspots in the points to 49 percent, compared to a previous poll from ture like the one currently dividing the ruling majority down, how quickly it manages to get liquidity to suf- Lombardy region, home to the financial capital Milan, the end of 2018. “would usually have already toppled the government”. fering businesses, and how much solidarity it is seen to allowed the virus to spread and has sparked a row be- Rome is reluctant to use the rescue plan, which in- Conte has appeared “increasingly muddled” over the get from the EU at a key meeting next week. tween the government and League - with each blaming cludes loans from the financial-crisis-era European past couple of weeks, and his opponents were being The coronavirus emergency in Italy has fuelled not the other for failing to act. The anti-populist, youth- Stability Mechanism (ESM), despite an easing of the given ammunition by his “mediocre handling of the only national pride but also eurosceptic and populist driven Sardines movement - founded last year to try tough economic and fiscal reform usually tied to it as emergency,” he wrote in the Repubblica daily on Tues- narratives. That brew could play right into the hands and stop Salvini’s rise - is one of many left-wing voices requirements. The ESM evokes bad memories of Brus- day. The PM has been accused of avoiding difficult de- of Matteo Salvini, whose League party governed Italy calling on Conte to put the region under special com- sels dictating policy to bailed-out Greece, and Salvini cisions on lifting the lockdown by simply extending it. in a coalition for a year until summer 2019 and who is mission for woeful crisis management. and Meloni have both said Conte would be stripping determined to return quickly to power, to rule alone. The economic fallout forecast is mind-boggling. The Italy of its sovereignty if he uses it. They also complain ‘Serious trouble’ “The (economic) blow is going to be extremely hard, International Monetary Fund expects Italy’s economy Italy is being offered a fraction of the money it pours He has called on Italians to be patient, saying finan- that’s clear. But it can be merely extremely hard, or it to shrink by 9.1 percent in 2020 - the worst peacetime into the EU, and will have to pay interest. “It’s stealing,” cial aid was coming. But there are real fears that wide- can be exceptionally hard,” Giovanni Orsina, professor decline in nearly a century. The Confindustria big busi- Salvini said, sneering at the suggestion Italy had got a spread job losses, poverty, homelessness and hunger of politics at Rome’s LUISS University, told AFP. ness lobby has said every week of the shutdown chops good deal in terms of the reduced conditions. could spark social unrest — and a revolt against the “If people begin to suffer seriously, rage could another 0.75 percent off GDP. Yet Conte has hesitated Meloni said using the mechanism was “worthy of a government. Media reports have flagged a rise in do- spread throughout the country... at which point far- over entering the so-called “Phase Two”, the easing of totalitarian regime” and “a democratic point of no re- mestic abuse and suicides as quarantined families snap right propaganda becomes very effective”, he said. At the lockdown, amid advice from top scientists that the turn”. The government hopes it will score an important under the strain. Italy’s interior minister has put the po- the height of the health crisis, which has killed over epidemic could flare up again, forcing him to shut win on the question of joint bonds to finance recon- lice on alert. Particular attention will be paid to the 22,000 people and infected around 169,000, largely down the country a second time. He is banking on help struction at a videoconference meeting of EU leaders poorer regions south of Rome, where the lockdown is in the country’s wealthy northern powerhouse, Italy’s from the EU to weather the storm. next Thursday - perhaps allowing it to avoid using the costing some 10 billion euros a month in lost produc- warring political parties called a temporary truce of ESM. Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta im- tivity, according to the SVIMEZ association. Anger is sorts. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s popularity shot Anti-EU backlash plored Brussels, Berlin and Paris “not to underesti- rising there that an area already dogged with high un- up to a record high of around 63 percent, polls showed. Eurogroup finance ministers have approved a 500- mate... growing euro-frustration” among Italians. It employment has not been allowed to leave the lock- billion-euro rescue package to help European coun- would be “a big mistake”, he tweeted. down early, despite having relatively few virus cases. Bitter spats tries hit hard by the pandemic - but some Italians fear “If you have a very, very troubled country, you cannot But as preparations for relaunching parts of the that the cross-border solidarity will come with strings Risks have Salvini and Meloni fanning the flames,” LUISS economy begin, cracks have emerged in the already attached. The ministers have so far refused to counter Conte’s problems are not limited to the far-right. University’s Orsina said. — AFP