Hospital returns Sportsplex keys to St. Clair
The St. Clair College Sportsplex looked more like its former self on Wednesday as the last markers of its time as a COVID -19 field hospital were stripped away and Windsor Regional Hospital officially gave back the keys.
During a ceremony of thanks and reflection outside the facility where health-care workers saved lives, swabbed noses, and administered vaccines, hospital CEO David Musyj handed over a single loonie — rent for more than a year of full access to the Sportsplex.
“History will remember what all of you did to get this site up and running, and what has happened over the last 16 months here,” Musyj said, speaking of those who contributed to the field hospital's speedy 17-day set up and subsequent operation. “You responded to the needs of our most vulnerable.”
On April 2, 2020, Windsor Regional Hospital announced it had reached an agreement with the college to use the standalone athletic facility on its main campus in the city as a field hospital to assist in the care of patients during the pandemic. With help from multiple community partners, including construction companies, the Sportsplex was transformed into a 100bed hospital in just over two weeks.
Fifty-three Covid-positive long-term care patients were treated at the field hospital, which ran from April 18, 2020 to June 13 that year. Of those, 16 died as a result of the disease.
Musyj read aloud an email from the family of a 92-yearold field hospital patient written in April of 2020, expressing their thanks for the “first-class facility,” which they called “the best place she could be in the world” while she fought against the disease. That woman, who survived, is now 94, Musyj said.
While the facility was used as a COVID-19 assessment centre from August until October, 7,568 individuals were swabbed.
On Dec. 22, the region's first COVID-19 vaccine was administered inside the Sportsplex, followed by 112,776 more jabs in the months following to 85,031 individuals while the site operated as a mass vaccination centre.
College president Patti France, who accepted the Sportsplex keys and the dollar from Musyj, said the college would volunteer such services again if it ever became necessary.
“We are St. Clair College Saints, and that's what saints do,” France said. “Everybody worked as a team — IT, facilities, everybody really came together, and we wanted to help. Everybody put their heart and soul into making sure that we could get this up and running so quickly.”
A plaque presented by the hospital Wednesday that describes the facility's use during the pandemic will hang inside the Sportsplex.
St. Clair College students will in large part return to campus for in-person learning this fall. The college ceased in-person instruction in mid-march of 2020, when the pandemic first arose in the area and across Canada.
To commemorate the facility's return to normal operations, Musyj celebrated with a basketball layup. As of Wednesday afternoon, some of the gymnasium's wood court was again visible, with the industrial-sized floor mats from the field hospital partially rolled up.