In photos: Strength, community and resiliency as MGH marks one year into the COVID-19 pandemic

A lot can change in a year. Just 13 months ago, staff and physicians at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) — along with much of the rest of the world — were often mask-less, shaking hands upon meeting for the first time and gathering in shared spaces for both work and play.

Now, masks, visors and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are a critical part of the frontline uniform. Hand shaking has been replaced with elbow taps. And maintaining two metres of distance is the new golden rule. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges in the way we live and work, especially in healthcare. But it’s also presented opportunities for us to come together in extraordinary ways.

At MGH, this has meant collaborating with our community partners from day one to deliver an integrated, community-based response to COVID-19 that considers our most at-risk populations. It’s meant driving innovation, whether it’s through pilot projects or bravely being the first to test a new process, to help ensure we’re exploring every avenue possible to protect our patients and communities. And it’s meant leaning on one another during times of hope, despair and every feeling in between, so we’re able to emerge from the pandemic not just stronger but with a renewed belief in what we can accomplish when we extend a hand to one another.

To recognize the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re sharing a series of photographs that capture a year into the pandemic at MGH and in our East Toronto community. We are also lowering the flag on our hospital campus to half-mast today to honour the hundreds of thousands of lives lost due to COVID-19, including the 133 at MGH, and reflect on the hope that lies ahead.

We thank our staff, physicians, learners, volunteers, partners and community members for their tremendous support over the past year and look forward to continuing our work with them in our pandemic response.

January 2020: Dr. Jeff Powis, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) at MGH, leads a meeting with members of the hospital’s operations team to discuss emergency preparedness after news about a mystery illness originating in Wuhan, China, begins circulating.

February 2020: MGH begins taking measures to prepare for the potential arrival of patients with COVID-19 by ensuring PPE is well stocked throughout the hospital, including outside negative pressure rooms in the Emergency Department (ED).

February 2020: Lisa Mohamed, lab technician at MGH, prepares a completed COVID-19 test for shipment to Shared Hospital Laboratory (SHL), where the majority of COVID-19 tests conducted at MGH are processed. MGH now processes some of these tests on-site.

March 2020: MGH staff receive mask donations from the community after medical leaders and the Michael Garron Hospital Foundation launch a campaign to support anticipated shortages of PPE across the health system.

March 2020: MGH hires more than 70 screeners who become the first face that many people see when they enter the hospital. They play a key role in preventing the potential transmission of COVID-19.

March 2020: Staff at MGH receive a meal donation organized by the Michael Garron Hospital Foundation. During the pandemic, MGH has received a number of generous donations from local businesses and the wider community who would like to give thanks to our frontline workers.

March 2020: Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at MGH, stands inside a hospital conference room that was temporarily transformed into a storage area for items donated as part of our PPE drive.

March 2020: MGH partners with South East Toronto Family Health Team (SETFHT) and East Toronto Family Practice Network (EasT-FPN) to open the province’s first COVID-19 Assessment Centre.

April 2020: Maria (Mary) Relova, a member of MGH's Environmental Services team, prepares donated masks for distribution across the hospital and community as part of the Michael Garron Hospital Foundation's #MGH1000Masks challenge. East Toronto community members contributed more than 250,000 handmade cloth masks for the initiative.

April 2020: Signs spelling out the word HEROES are installed outside MGH by members of the East Toronto community, which recognize the work of our staff and physicians during the pandemic.

April 2020: MGH and EasT-FPN begin conducting outreach to long-term care homes in East Toronto to help the individuals who work in these settings prevent, respond to and manage COVID-19 outbreaks. Part of the outreach team are Dr. Jarred Rosenberg (centre), geriatrician at MGH, and nurses from MGH’s Nurse-Led Outreach Team (NLOT), Nicole, Yvonne, Theresa and Siphathokuhle (Pat).

April 2020: MGH’s Virtual Family Visit program helps patients like Tony Carvalho connect with loved ones when the province directed all hospitals to restrict visitors due to the risks of COVID-19.

May 2020: Staff at MGH’s COVID-19 Assessment Centre share their gratitude for one another with recognition cards during Nursing Week.

May 2020: MGH’s Virtual Ward becomes embedded in the hospital’s pandemic response. Here, registered nurses and case managers Trudy Ryan-Brady (left) and Mary Fitzgerald pose for a photo in their office where they closely monitor patients with COVID-19 who are recovering from home.

May 2020: Messages line a hallway at MGH as part of our Gratitude Gallery, which was installed at the hospital in the spring to show support and appreciation for frontline workers during the pandemic.

May 2020: MGH nurses receive donations from the community in celebration of Nursing Week. 

June 2020: Jennifer Sampson, manager of special projects and the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at MGH at the time, poses for a photo outside East Toronto Health Partners’ (ETHP) temporary COVID-19 testing site in Thorncliffe Park. It was one of three pop-up testing sites that MGH participated in during the summer to help increase access to testing in priority neighbourhoods in East Toronto.

July 2020: MGH’s redeployment centre prepares to ramp down after successfully redeploying more than 4,800 shifts to other areas in the hospital and community during the peak of the pandemic in response to evolving staffing needs.

July 2020: The Michael Garron Hospital Foundation and local initiative Feel Good Flowers organize for a flower installation to be installed at MGH as an expression of gratitude to frontline workers.

July 2020: Tony Lamanna (right) reunites with his daughter, Victoria, after recovering from COVID-19 at MGH and when the province loosened its visitor restrictions at hospitals.

September 2020: MGH teams up with EasT-FPN to lead a proactive, community-based approach to back-to-school planning. The approach, which includes conducting virtual town halls where principals at East Toronto schools can ask infectious disease experts questions, helps schools reopen safely amid the pandemic.

October 2020: MGH's Department of Surgery works to perform procedures that were postponed when the Ontario Ministry of Health asked hospitals to ramp down elective surgeries early in the pandemic. From May, when Ontario entered stage one of its reopening plan, to October, the team completed more than 60 per cent of its backlogged cases.

November 2020: After successfully operating three pop-up COVID-19 testing sites in East Toronto during the summer, ETHP opens four more sites for a total of seven. With the help of MGH, the OHT would go on to open another two. These nine temporary testing sites continue to operate in priority neighbourhoods in East Toronto.

November 2020: After introducing a mobile self-screening tool for staff and physicians, MGH adapts the tool for use at other organizations within ETHP. The tool allows staff to answer a series of screening questions to identify COVID-19 symptoms and minimize the risk of transmission. 

December 2020: MGH receives its first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s prepared by our Pharmacy team before being administered to priority populations such as healthcare workers and staff and residents in long-term care homes.

December 2020: MGH administers its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to long-term care workers in East Toronto, including Brigitte Pascual, a registered practical nurse (RPN) who has dedicated the past 10 years to caring for residents of Midland Gardens Care Community.

January 2021: MGH works with community partners, including EasT-FPN, to complete vaccinations for residents of all 22 long-term care and retirement homes the hospital supports in East Toronto. The achievement involved administering more than 2,500 doses in four days.

February 2021: Dr. Janine McCready, infectious diseases physician at MGH, leads a pilot program to offer take-home testing kits to students at select schools in East Toronto in an effort to make COVID-19 testing easier and more accessible for families.

March 2021: MGH and ETHP begin operating a COVID-19 Immunization Clinic at Warden Hilltop Community Centre as part of the OHT’s COVID-19 Immunization Plan for East Toronto. To start, the site will administer vaccines to eligible healthcare workers in East Toronto.

March 2021: Adults 80 years of age and older in East Toronto receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a dedicated seniors’ clinic at MGH.