MONTREAL -- Public long-term care facilities (CHSLDs) have not been spared by the Omicron wave that has hit Quebec, with the situation continuing to deteriorate.

In three days, between Jan. 6 and 9, the number of deaths in CHSLDs in the current wave rose from 61 to 80.

At the same time, there are now 30 homes in the red zone, meaning that at least 25 per cent of their residents have the virus. That's five more than three days ago.

Thirty-two are now in the orange zone, 10 more than on Jan. 6. The orange zone refers to institutions where 15 to 24 per cent of the total number of residents have active cases of the virus.

The Omicron variant has also made its way into 213 other long-term care facilities that have active cases, but have an infection rate of less than 15 per cent.

133 PER CENT INFECTION RATE

Among those in the red zone, one home stands out -- the Unité transitoire de récupération fonctionnelle (UTRF) of the CHSLD Georges-Hébert in Saguenay, which has an infection rate of 133 per cent, meaning that it houses 12 residents, who are all infected, even though it has a capacity of only nine beds.

A UTRF provides rehabilitation services to seniors who have been hospitalized and need to regain their strength in order to return home.

Unit 2 of the CHSLD Georges-Hébert has an infection rate of 47 per cent.

Infection rates are worrisome in many similar institutions. The UTRF of the Centre multi vocation de Lanaudière (unit 34) has a rate of 94 per cent, with 16 out of 17 patients infected.

Also in Lanaudière, the CHSLD des Moulins in Terrebonne shows a rate of 61 per cent on the first floor and 58 per cent on the third floor.

The ministry's list includes two other institutions with infection rates above 50 per cent: CHSLD Soulanges, in Montérégie, and CHSLD Résidence Au coeur de la vie, in Saint-Jérôme, in the Laurentians, which both have a rate of 53 per cent.

RESUMING TRANSFERS

Quebec has recently tightened the rules for admitting non-residents to CHSLDs, with visits limited to one family caregiver per day.

However, some hospitals have resumed transferring patients to CHSLDs, a practice that the Parti Québécois criticized on Sunday, saying that these transfers largely contributed to the high number of deaths during the first wave.

However, the transferred patients must take a PCR test before being transferred in order to prevent them from becoming vectors of infection.

The Quebec government also said that CHSLD residents are now triple-vaccinated.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 10, 2021.