COVID-19 remains an issue for minors at the Montreal Children’s Hospital

This is part two of a CTV News Montreal special report this week done in collaboration with Noovo Info to explore the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Part 1: COVID-19, five years later: 2 Quebec companies preparing for next pandemic
• Part 3: Are Quebec hospitals ready for another pandemic? Looking back at COVID-19, five years later

The Montreal Children’s Hospital still sees minors with COVID-19 or other illnesses come through its doors for an IV or to be observed by a medical team.

While the virus doesn’t make most children seriously sick, those with complex medical conditions can develop scary symptoms, and the doctors taking care of them say there’s more that can be done to protect them.

“We’ve been faced with a little bit of vaccine fatigue,” says pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jesse Papenburg.

Papenburg adds that immunizations against COVID-19, as well as other viruses, have dropped and that they were, and still are, vital in keeping students in class.

During the pandemic, Quebec closed schools and turned to online learning to reduce transmission.

Papenburg says it led to students being deprived of socialization.

“How are the children that lived that distress during the pandemic, how are they dealing with that now? Have they come back to a place that they feel well? I think the studies are ongoing and we don’t have that answer yet.”

He cites studies that show first diagnoses of mental health disorders increased in minors during lockdown periods.

Five years later, some students told CTV News the closures took a toll.

“I think a lot of people suffered in those times, especially in Quebec,” said Jenny Booth, 23. “I was at Dawson [College], everything stopped very abruptly.”

“I remember that everyone was putting masks on, and we couldn’t go out from home so it was a bit boring,” said one 15-year-old.

“Back in the days, 2020-2021 was not really fun,” added another.

Their friend echoed the sentiment.

“I didn’t want to stay home.”

Long confinement: ‘That’s what really hurts'

There was no shortage of controversial public health decisions, from cancelled graduation ceremonies to nightly curfews.

Seniors who spoke to CTV News outside of a retirement home said the harshest measures were being confined and having limited time with loved ones.

“I got great grandchildren, so I stayed away from them. I didn’t want to be the cause of them catching any flu or any bug,” one elderly man said.

“Just one week of confinement, that’s hard, but a long period of time, that’s what really hurts,” added another.

More than 20,500 deaths of people aged 60 and above have been linked to COVID-19 since 2020 until mid-February of this year.

Several health experts have said Quebec officials weren’t prepared to weather the crisis.

The vast majority of seniors’ deaths during the first wave were in elder and long-term care facilities.

Dr. Sophie Zhang co-leads the Communaute de Pratique des Medecins en CHSLD, a group of physicians in long-term care.

She says Quebec will have to think long and hard before banning visits again.

“We found that measure actually lead to a lot of negative consequences for people’s mental health in terms of social isolation, decreased stimulation, and those things actually increased death rates for elderly people,” Zhang says.

Her research also shows a direct link between staffing shortages and high death rates.

“It’s my number one worry ... nurses, doctors, who take care of them will give them many hours of care per day to have quality of life, to survive.”

Zhang warns that the provincial government will have to create -- rather than cut -- positions in retirement homes to be prepared for the next potential pandemic and protect the most vulnerable.