FACT CHECK: Fullerton plays percentages while residents die in long-term care

QUEEN’S PARK — For months, Merrilee Fullerton, Doug Ford’s Minister of Long-Term Care, has downplayed how many seniors are getting sick and dying in long-term care, playing a callous numbers game to avoid having to spend money to hire staff and implement infection control measures.

On Sept. 22, there were 58 resident cases:
“Ninety-nine per cent of our long-term-care homes have no resident cases.”
- Merrilee Fullerton (Hansard link)

On Oct. 5, there were 136 resident cases:
“98% of our long-term-care homes have no resident cases.”
- Merrilee Fullerton (Hansard link)

On Nov. 2, there were 530 resident cases and the Minister said:
“The vast majority of our homes, 94% of them, right now have no resident cases.”
- Merrilee Fullerton (Hansard link)

Today, there are 716 resident cases and the Minister said:
“Ninety-two per cent of our long-term-care homes in Ontario have not a single resident case.”
- Merrilee Fullerton

“So far, 2,145 residents of long-term care have died of COVID-19 in Ontario. More than 250 of those people have died in the second wave, and hundreds more are already infected. They are in pain. Their families are terrified and devastated. Using these cold, manipulated statistics to justify the Ford government’s lack of action is inexcusable,” said NDP Long Term Care critic Teresa Armstrong.