with asymptomatic cases so difficult to spot, daily covid-19 tests were introduced to identify new infections before they could spread.
“as you can imagine, people are not necessarily that cooperative with being tested every day, so it was very challenging to convince people to let us stick a swab up their nose day in and day out,” said wendy muckle, executive director at ottawa inner city health. “it was not a happy time for anybody.”
the asymptomatic nature of the infections had allowed the outbreaks to grow unchecked in early january. when health officials began to suspect that something was wrong — following a few symptomatic cases — widespread screening revealed the true extent of the problem. “the vast majority were asymptomatic — that’s why it was so startling for us,” said aileen leo, director of the communications at the ottawa mission.
it meant that, by the time health officials became aware of the outbreak, there was no stopping it. “it basically just spread like wildfire,” muckle said.
all of which made the arrival of the covid-19 vaccine such a welcome development for all those trying to withstand and manage the outbreaks.
ottawa inner city health and city officials lobbied the province to gain access to the vaccine for homeless people during phase 1 of ontario’s vaccine rollout, alongside long-term care home residents and health-care workers. (homeless people were initially designated as phase 2 recipients.)