(Lauren Pelley/ CTV News) — While Lhamo Dolkar worked on the front lines as a registered nurse in the early months of the pandemic, her precautions after coming home from a shift were a stressful but necessary routine.
First, the Whitby, Ont., resident would strip down in her garage. Then she’d rub alcohol on her body before going up to have a shower. Then, finally, she’d get to hug her four boys — even though fears about infecting her family with COVID-19 still lingered in her mind.
“My kids have become so programmed now that they ask me, ‘Can I touch you now? Do you have coronavirus?'” she recalled. “That truly breaks my heart.”
Dolkar, who worked in front-line patient care in Toronto and is now in a public health role, is one of thousands of Ontario health-care workers facing constant fear and stress as the pandemic enters its second year. (…)