Hamilton's year of COVID-19: Isolation, Zoom calls and uncertainty about the future

Paul Johnson, the director of Hamilton's emergency operations centre, remembers the moment he realized people would be living under COVID-19 restrictions for a long time.

Hamilton had already been through a first wave of the pandemic, living through weeksof lockdowns and missed family holidays. In the early days, long serpentine lines had formedat grocery stores to buy dough andtoilet paper. Businesses had shortenedtheir hours.

The numbers seemed to fall, and then, in the fall, they rose again.

"As we went through a summer, we had days where (Dr.Elizabeth Richardson, the medical officer of health) would say 'no new cases today.'And we had very few outbreaks. Our shelters had weathered six months of this storm," he said.

Then "the second wave came," Johnson said, and "I realized we were in a long haul."

It's been one year since COVID-19's first brush with the city. On March 11, 2020, city officials announced a 32-year-oldHamilton Health Sciences radiation oncologist from Burlington had tested positive for the virus. It was Ontario's 41st case.

Since then, 10,976 people in Hamilton have tested positive for COVID-19, and 441 are known to have it right now, 47 more than Wednesday. Three per cent of people who had the virus 289 people have died.The city has lowered the flags at its buildingsto mourn the deaths,and the countless people who have felt the pandemic reverberate in their lives. Tonight, it will air a one-year retrospective on Cable 14.

"There's just been so much, and I think that's what sticks out the most. The extent of the impact of this pandemic across our community," Richardson said.

"And yet, the stories of things that have come about that are positive. The kinds of changes that, quite frankly, that need to happen and need to be made, and how this might actually accelerate some of those changes."

289 lives lost, 808hospitalized

Six months ago, there were 45 deaths and 148 hospitalizations. As of today, 807 people had been hospitalized. The vast majority of the seriously ill have been aged 80 or older.

Outbreaks at long-term care centres, retirement homes and congregate settings exposed fault lines in the province's long-term care system.

The city's largest and deadliest outbreak was at Grace Villa on the east Mountain. There were 234 people infected, including 144 residents, 88 staff, and two visitors. Forty-three people died.

Meanwhile, the majority of people infected by the virus have been people in their 20s.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger formed a task force to look at how the city's economy will recover from the pandemic. That task force had dozens of suggestions.

"We're assessing not only how do we vaccinate, but what kind of time frame are we looking at in terms of recovery, economic recovery, and I think we're measuring that in years as well," Eisenberger said.

More working from home after pandemic

Keanin Loomis, president of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, says while the hospitality industry has been decimated, most local business sectors have "weathered the storm."

"I want to put aside the hospitality industry in particular," he said. "They've been obviously hard hit, and there's a lot of decimation there that needs to be addressed."

"Pretty much every other industry besides hospitality and tourism hasbounced back to almost pre-pandemic levels."

It's unclear how many businesses in Hamilton have shuttered because of the pandemic, but Loomis said the pandemic hasn't hit them as hard as the chamber thought it would.

He said we likelywon't know the real number of closed businesses for quite some time, butwithout concerts and street festivals, the city's sense of communityhas suffered.

Loomisthinks more industries will be flexible now when it comes to people work from home.

"I think people will not be as tolerant of [losing]time we've gotten back. For example, commuting or going to events because it was the right thing to do," he said. "Now I think we'll have a different outlook on how we spend our time. And the time we've had with our families, it'll be tough to give that up."

Deadly drugs

Melissa Biksa, the city's manager of sexual health andsubstance misuse prevention, says the pandemic affected people's ability to safely use drugs like opioids.

This was particularly true, she said, "at the beginning when we saw the emergence of changes in community services that were open and agencies that were open, as well as the new social distancing guidelines. That really impacted the availability of social networks and safe spaces for individuals using substances."

Those changes, Biksa said, leadto more drug use and more overdoses.

The city's four-pronged drug strategy was paused in April to help public health manage the first wave of COVID-19, and only partly reopened in August.

In November, analysis by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network showed Hamilton was one of four regions in Ontario with the largest absolute increase in opioid deaths when compared to the pre-pandemic cohort.

Increasein domestic violence

Erin Griver,director of Inasmuch House andWomen's Services, says there has been a massincreasenot just in domestic violence, butthe severity of the abuse.

It led to the creation of a permanent text and web-based crisis line "because women were not having the same safe opportunity to be able to call the crisis line."

"The amount of control and surveillance and level of fear has just grown dramatically," Griver said.

"We really need to focus on prevention and ask why is this happening in the first place ... and how can we help people that have experienced this?"

Isolation, emotion and stress

The shelter has also been renovated to accommodate the pandemic, as have many of outreach programs. Griver said. That'sled to a lot more collaboration.

Deputy Chief Frank Bergen said during a police services board meeting on Feb. 26 calls for service have focusedaround"isolation, emotion and stress."

He said calls about threatening incidents were up 35.8 per cent during the pandemic, while calls about domestic incidents are up 21 per cent. Calls about aperson in crisiscalls have increased 15.9 per cent.

Students, educators and families felt the impact of the pandemic when schools closed lastMarch. School boards were forced to undergo massive reorganizations and come up with three learning models to be prepared for whatever the province decided to do.

Manny Figeureido, director of education at Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB), said between March and November, boards were largely reacting.

The future of school

HWDSB launched a Parent Portal which causedheadaches forfamilies. The goal was tomanage families'desires to switch between in-person and online learning, and dealwith budgeting issues after changes tostudent enrolmentand concerns from unions. Then the second wave arrivedand led to COVID-19 cases in schools.

Pat Daly, chair of Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB), said while he doesn't blame anyone in particular for theuncertainty families faced.

They existed "not knowing when we might be moving back and forth to one learning modality," he said.

"The other huge challenge, if I'm speaking about staff, those that had concerns with regard to their students' education but at the same time, in particular during full-remote learning, had to [simulatenously]care for their own children."

Since returning to in-person learning in February, COVID-19 cases in schools haven't been as rampant, and now,Figeureido said the board is starting to think about if it may finally get a sense of stability.

But he also saidfamilies shouldn't necessarily assume school in September will be the way it was before the pandemic.

"I want to be realistic, we still need to be prepared for all three scenarios," he said.

"Now there's a playbook and it should not take much time to transition."

Figeureidois concerned about the impact the pandemic had on Grade 9 students, whose transition to high school was far more complicated than past years.

There are also concerns about funding for the incoming school year, he said, and any hopes the province is able to support school boards instead of leading to more staff redundancies.

Athletes worry about future careers

Steve Staios, president and general manager of the Hamilton Bulldogs OHL hockey team, said the pandemic has forced them to be creative.

"We have guest speakers [on Zoom calls] and things like that, and the coaching staff with tactical video clips of game situations and trying to keep them engaged that way," he said.

But athletes have been concerned about their trajectory.

"It doesn't matter if you're going into your first year or hoping to play in your final year in the OHL ... I think there's anxiety with all of them," he said.

Staios said it's been especially stressful for those eligible to enter the NHL draft, but reminds them there's always an opportunity.

"There are players that get drafted in their second year of NHL eligibility and free agent signings," he said.

'A different pace'

If there's one positive, besides the city rallying together,it's that people are reconnecting with the city they live in,saidLynda Lukasik, executive director ofEnvironment Hamilton.

"People are understanding and appreciating the importance of local natural spaces, of parks, of active transpiration options... I think there are a lot of people who realize they took all of those important natural amenities for granted," she said.

"In the before times, a lot of us were so busy with day-to-day, you sort of forget about enjoying the place you're a part of."

"This has really forced us to not necessarily slow down ...but it is a different pace, and it gives you time to connect more to what's happening around you."