She stopped work last Monday at a Toronto long-term-care centre. By Friday, she died at home, alone

On Thursday night, she ate soup that a friend delivered, with a cup of tea and an orange. At 8 p.m., Roberts’s cousin called from New York state, hoping to check in and have a good chat, but Roberts told her she had to lie down for a rest.

By the next day, she was dead.

Her cousin alerted Toronto police after her frantic phone calls to Roberts went unanswered Friday. Officers found Roberts’s body at her east-end home, where she lived alone, said Sharleen Stewart, president of Canada’s SEIU Healthcare union. On the weekend, Stewart said she spoke to Roberts’s cousin, who did not want to talk publicly but gave details to share.

In the days leading up to her April 27 diagnosis, Roberts had been feeling sick but was afraid to be tested, Stewart said. She feared the outcome, working in a home where infection numbers kept climbing.

For 24 years, Roberts worked at Downsview, owned by Nova Scotia-based GEM Health Care Group. Since the pandemic hit, 57 residents and 65 staff at Downsview have tested positive for COVID, according to GEM Health Care’s update May 4 at 9 a.m. Twenty-one residents have died along with Roberts.

Stewart said she has received complaints from workers who said they have had to wear the same gown from room to room. Workers also worry about the health of residents, Stewart said, saying that infected residents had been in the same room as residents whose tests came back negative.

A spokesperson for GEM disputed the union’s claims that the home did not always give workers proper personal protection equipment (PPE) or quickly separate infected residents from those who were healthy. On the weekend, the company released a statement about Roberts’s death, saying the news is “heartbreaking.” It confirmed that the employee who died had tested positive for the virus but said, “the cause of death is being determined.”

Stewart is angry. Her union represents 60,000 front-line workers in long-term care, hospitals and retirement homes across Canada. In Ontario, hundreds of such workers are infected, and two other long-term-care workers have died.

“Eight weeks out and I’ve had enough,” she said. “I can’t continue to get phone calls and emails every day from workers begging me to keep them alive. I can’t do that anymore.”

Stewart has strong views on government protections of long-term-care workers and residents, saying leaders did too little, too late. As infection numbers grow, so does her frustration with officials who were supposed to limit the spread of the virus with proactive measures.

“We have done everything to help the government work with us. They just ignored us. Their guidelines are killing people. They absolutely are, because they are not adequate.”

In his daily briefings, Premier Doug Ford has promised access to personal protection equipment, but Stewart said many workers have told her that Downsview limited the use of masks and gowns.

A GEM spokesperson said in an email that the home has ample PPE, including masks, gowns, face shields and gloves, and workers are not limited in how many masks they can use. The spokesperson also said “residents that have tested positive are not isolated with residents that have tested negative.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Long Term Care said COVID-19 has caused “so much tragedy but the death of heroes on our front lines are particularly saddening.” The provincial government is working with the federal government and other provinces to procure PPE for all health-care workers, the ministry statement said.

“Long-term-care staff who have concerns about access to personal protective equipment should speak to their employer,” the spokesperson said.

The week before Roberts went to an outside health-care office to be tested, Stewart said, Downsview staff gathered in the lunchroom, threatening to refuse work en masse if the home didn’t provide more PPE. Their union representative was in touch with Stewart’s office, and the management.

The Star obtained an email from a Downsview worker, sent to the union April 26, to set out infection-control concerns from the week of April 20. The Star interviewed the worker, who confirmed her email statements but asked that her name not be used over fears of work reprisals.

“… I noticed there were some residents who had tested positive for COVID-19, who were still sharing the same room space with residents who tested negative,” the worker wrote.

She also expressed concerns about PPE. “I only received one N95 mask and wore it for subsequent shifts on Wednesday and Thursday as we are only entitled to one mask.

“Likewise, we also received only one gown for the entire shift and were told by management to reuse it. We were made aware that we shouldn’t go from room to room with the same gown (but) given it is the only one we have, we don’t have a choice.

“Some staff members have had to wear garbage bags over their clothes to circumvent this,” the worker said.

A GEM spokesperson said that from the first positive test, Downsview has had “ample PPE, which includes masks, gowns, face shields and gloves.” The spokesperson said all gowns are disposed of “immediately upon exiting a COVID isolation area. As well, all face shields are appropriately disinfected upon exiting a COVID isolation area.”

No staff have been directed to wear garbage bags, the spokesperson said.

“We have provided full PPE to staff caring for residents that have tested positive since our first resident at Downsview tested positive for COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.

A longtime worker at Downsview, who asked that her name not be used for fear of job retaliation, said the PPE supplies have improved but said she is still wearing the same gown throughout her eight-hour shift. The worker said an infected resident who is now in the hospital had been in the same room as healthy residents. The GEM spokesperson denied residents with COVID were kept in the same room as residents who had tested negative.

Stewart said Roberts, 59, spoke to her cousin at least once a day while isolated at home. Born in Grenada, Roberts had lived in her cousin’s home from the age of three, raised by her aunt. The two girls grew close, calling each other sisters. Roberts had no family in Canada.

The cousin told Stewart that Roberts’s voice was weak and she was extremely tired — lethargic, as health-care workers say. On Thursday, the friend dropped by with soup. Roberts reported this to her cousin in their 8 p.m. phone call. She had no energy left and was going to bed.

That was the last time they spoke. The following day, Friday, May 1, Roberts didn’t answer her phone. The cousin told Stewart she called Toronto police asking for a wellness check. Officers knocked on the door, Stewart said, but left. A few hours later, Roberts’s cousin called police again, desperate, and they returned. This time officers went inside, Stewart said. They found Roberts’s body in the washroom.

On the weekend, staff cobbled together a photo montage of Roberts, and posted the photos with a message on a whiteboard in the foyer. “In memory of a Dedicated, Hard Working Employee and friend of Downsview LTCC. You will be missed beyond words!!! Your smile will definitely light up the heavens.”

Across the province, front-line workers are “overcome by tragedy and fear,” Stewart said.

“They have absolutely lost confidence in their government, and they have lost confidence in their employers,” she said.

“That is the world I wake up to every morning. And then I turn on the TV and people are talking about going golfing. Golfing? It’s two different worlds out there.

“The pandemic has not left long-term care.”