5 years on from COVID, what’s changed and what hasn’t in P.E.I.’s long-term care homes? [Video]

It’s a lively March day at the Dr. John M. Gillis Memorial Lodge in Belfast, P.E.I., as residents tap their feet and sing along with a guitarist performing The Black Velvet Band in a common room. 

Gatherings like this were banned five years ago. 

COVID-19 was spreading, and provincial officials were scrambling to control it. There were a lot of unknowns for those living and working in places like long-term care homes, given how deadly the disease was proving to be for people with compromised immunity elsewhere in Canada and around the world. 

“When the global pandemic was going on, a lot of people here didn’t realize that was happening on the outside. They started to think that maybe they had done something wrong and that their families weren’t coming to visit them anymore,” said Christina Linton, the activities director at Gillis Lodge.

“In long-term care, the staff is often like family members to the residents, but during …