Conditions

The virus quickly affected hospitals. Unprepared for the stress of COVID-19, facilities often lacked supplies and personnel. Working conditions in hospitals were difficult and exhausting. Yet frontline workers found ways to provide for those in need. 

A doctor kneels as he calls a patient's family to inform them of the patient's death.

A Red Cross volunteer moves through a temporary field hospital in Quebec.

A nurse tends to a COVID-19 patient. 

These three images take us behind the scenes. Intensive care units remained full month after month. Field hospitals erected in haste took the patients that could not be fit into already overflowing hospitals.

Despite the deep physical and emotional toll, healthcare workers remained committed to administering excellent care. With hospitals closed to visitors, healthcare workers became the only social link for patients. In the face of immense pressure and confusion, healthcare workers continued to be present for their patients and provided them with a reason to smile. Through hardship, communities and people still came together to support and uplift each other.

Long-Term Care 

Long term care facilities are one of the few forms of private healtcare in Canada. Mismanagement in long term care facilities was exposed near the beginning of the pandemic as hundreds of residents contracted COVID-19 at alarming rates. In some homes, the government stepped in to quell the outbreaks.

A long term care home worker dressed in full PPE looks out a window with "Everything will be alright" written on it.

Images from inside long term care facilities are difficult to find.  Understaffed and overwhelmed, the number of deaths mounted every day.

The pandemic did not stop healthcare workers from doing their jobs. They worked on the frontlines, regardless of the risk of exposure to the deadly virus, taking care of those in need. One of the struggles many healthcare workers dealt with was acquiring enough personal protective equipment. The next page is all about this struggle.