4 years later, lessons and lingering effects of COVID-19 pandemic in Windsor, Ont. persist

Four years ago, the lives of people around the world changed when a global pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO).

And while the COVID-19 pandemic is officially over, the effects are still with us.

Looking back at that time in the early days of the pandemic, even people who were ready and preparing for the onslaught of patients couldn’t believe what was happening.

“You're thinking, ‘Is that real? Are we living through this? Is this actually happening?’ Because that's something you would only see in a movie,” said Windsor Regional Hospital President, David Musyj.

At Windsor Regional Hospital, Musyj recalled it feeling like a waiting game.

With COVID-19 cases piling up around the world and a global pandemic declared, Windsor didn’t receive its first confirmed case until March 20, 2020.

“Everyone was walking on eggshells because we are waiting for our first patient,” he recalled.

One patient after another arrived at the hospital.

Since that first case, more than more than 5,800 people have been admitted at area hospitals, or the temporary field hospital at St. Clair College, with COVID-19.

According to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU), there have been 56,322 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community.

In total, 809 people died with the virus, while the healthcare system tried and struggled to keep up.

“There was a ton of unknowns and the information was just crashing down on us and we're trying to share it with the staff as best as we could with respect to what the latest and greatest was,” said Musyj. “And it changed on 20 minutes, 30 minutes notice.”

But Musyj said it brought lessons about treatment and patient management that will stick with healthcare workers forever.

“We want to move on from it, but we’ve got to learn from it not forget that it occurred and not forget, in case it were to occur again,” he said.

In May of 2023, the WHO said COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency, but the lingering effects remain.

Since then, 564 people have been hospitalized and 30 have died in hospital, according to WECHU data.

Musyj said approximately 15 people are still in hospital daily with COVID-19, a number that has fluctuated between 10 and 40 at any given time over the past year.

“Unfortunately it's now part of our life on a daily basis,” Musyj said. “So yeah, it's going to be with us for quite some time.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford meanwhile commemorated the milestone with rose coloured glasses.

“We did extremely well compared to the rest of the world,” Ford said during a stop in Windsor Monday. “Everyone pitched in everyone helped out from manufacturers to health care workers to industry. Everyone did an incredible job and never seen anything like it.”

But for some like Windsor resident Mike Rainone, it’s the financial impact that persists.

He lives on Ontario Works and ODSP. He took the $2,000 monthly Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) payments from the federal government.

“I was told by the agent at CRA that my Ontario Works met that criteria because I was looking after a senior,” he said, before taking CERB.

He collected seven payments, totalling $14,000 and figured the tax he’d pay back later would be in the ballpark of $3,000.

Today however, the Canada Revenue Agency is hounding him for the full amount back.

“I met that criteria and somewhere along the way they changed the rules,” Rainone argued.

Right now, he’s paying $50 a month back to avoid any penalties.

But living on a limited income, at that pace, the 64 year old will be square in 23 years.

“To be penalized $14,000, and I’m on ODSP, barely getting by now, please rethink and take a better look at what was done to people in the beginning of this,” he said.

He’s one of many who collectively owes the government billions of dollars in CERB repayments.