Quebec City long-term care employee in his late 50s dies from COVID-19

The worker at a Quebec City longterm care home who died of COVID-19 on Jan. 2 was one of the thousands of people who answered the province’s call to be trained as patient attendants over the summer, a union official said Tuesday.

The president of a union representing health-care workers in the Quebec City area said Oscar Anibal Rodriguez, who was in his late 50s, had worked in a “red” zone on the fourth floor of the CSHLD St-Antoine, caring for COVID-19 patients.

Richard Boissinot said he didn’t know much about Rodriguez, except that he agreed to train for a career caring for elders during the health crisis and is believed to be originally from Argentina.

“It’s a new employee who came to help us for the COVID-19 crisis, and unfortunately he’s no longer with us,” Boissinot said in a phone interview.

A spokesman for the local health authority said Tuesday the worker had been employed at the CHSLD St-Antoine since mid-June.