Health-care workers speak with patients at a COVID-19 assessment center in London, Ont., on March 17, 2020.GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is promising to introduce measures to help improve conditions for the province’s personal support workers.
Ford says the PSWs, who have played a major in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, are underpaid and overworked.
He says he plans to ask the provincial Health Ministry to come up with a plan to bolster salaries and take other steps to ensure the workers are properly compensated for their efforts.
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Ford says his determination to address PSWs’ needs came after a recent visit to a Toronto-area long-term care facility where his mother-in-law currently lives.
Ontario’s congregate-care settings have been particularly hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting measures earlier this year that prevented PSWs from working in more than one facility at a time.
Ford did not offer an estimate as to when any new measures may be introduced.
Earlier on Thursday, Ontario reported 95 new cases of COVID-19 across the province, along with one new death.
It marked the fourth day in a row that the province’s new case load has come in under 100.
The number of resolved cases continues to outpace new ones, with provincial data showing 159 more classified as recovered in the past 24 hours.
Ontario has recorded 39,809 total cases of the novel coronavirus, along with 2,783 deaths.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 15 of the province’s 34 public health units have not recorded any new cases, with 14 more reporting five or fewer.
She says Ontario processed more than 26,000 tests on Wednesday.
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