A small cottage-country nursing home has been devastated by COVID-19.

Nine residents of Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, Ontario have died, seven of them over the weekend.

And it’s believed their deaths are related to the COVID-19 outbreak at the nursing home.

(The Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, Ont. is shown in an undated Google Streetview image)

According to the local medical officer of health, thirty-four employees, more than half of Pinecrest’s staff, had symptoms of the new coronavirus as of Friday night.

There are also 9 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents and staff at Markhaven Home for Seniors in Markham.

Meantime, The Ford PCs at Queen’s Park are making sweeping changes to long term care homes by eliminating long held rules that protect vulnerable residents.

Written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporary emergency order is said to be an attempt to deal with the outbreak, which is infecting fragile seniors and staff.

The order also removes training requirements for workers, allows homes to bring in volunteers and eliminates the need for administrators to report most complaints to the ministry.

Lawyer Jane Meadus, with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, says this is going to be a disaster, questioning why would you send the most untrained people into long term care homes? And CARP –  A New Vision of Aging – calls this a massive mistake for the same reason.