When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it unleashed chaos across the country. But SickKids was there to help—and so were our donors.

By April, SickKids Foundation had helped establish the Frontline Fund, supporting staff in the trenches in hospitals across Canada. By May, multiple COVID-19 studies were already underway and donations were pouring in from donors, including masks, gowns, and gloves to keep staff safe. More recently, SickKids is making a major difference in the fight, from opening ICU beds for young adults with COVID-19 to contributing to more than 100 studies on the disease to being a champion of child, youth, and family mental health and wellbeing amidst a year of restrictions, lockdowns, and hardship.

Below is just a glimpse of what SickKids has done—contributions you helped make possible. Thank you.

Community

From rapid testing to public advocacy, SickKids has done everything it can to keep our patients, staff, and community safe during the pandemic.

• SickKids is now home to an important COVID-19 testing lab, capable of analyzing up to 6,000 samples a day from our patients and the community
• To ease the burden on Ontario's hospitals, SickKids opened eight ICU beds to young adults with COVID-19 and accepted paediatric patients from other Toronto hospitals
• From gift cards and hot meals to personal protective equipment, SickKids and its donors ensured frontline healthcare workers were cared for, too
• To keep kids and staff safe in school, SickKids piloted take-home spit tests for COVID-19 and developed and maintained a living guidance document on school reopenings

Research

SickKids researchers have channeled their energies into 100+ studies to combat COVID-19 with new tools for diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and to help kids and families cope with the long-term health effects of the pandemic. These are just a few:

• In a study published in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, SickKids researchers found that the "majority of children and youth experienced harm to their mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic"
• Using data gleaned from cochlear implants, SickKids scientist Dr. Karen Gordon discovered that children with implants were exposed to far less speech during the first lockdown—a finding with major implications on cognitive development, for all children
• In one donor-funded study, Dr. Upton Allen, Chief of Infectious Diseases, is leveraging genetic sequencing to determine vulnerability to the disease; in another, funded by the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, he's examining the extent to which COVID-19 has affected Black communities and the inequities that put them, and other racialized groups, at greater risk
• A newly published report in UNICEF, led by the Centre for Global Child Health Co-Director Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, looked at the impact of COVID-19 on South Asia, particularly “the indirect effects of the disease on the health, nutrition and social well-being of the most vulnerable of the region’s 1.8 billion people, especially children, women and adolescents”

Care

Amidst all the turmoil of the pandemic, children never stopped needing SickKids care—from infections to broken bones, heart disease and cystic fibrosis. And SickKids never stopped being there for them. In spite of stringent safety restrictions, SickKids continued to offer world-class care—both virtual and in-person—to the children who need it most.

• As SickKids had to limit in-person visits, clinical departments ramped up virtual care; in 2020 there were nearly 100,000 virtual visits compared with just 13,000 in 2019
• Donations have helped house more SickKids families from out-of-town while their child is in hospital, and covered the cost of medical equipment and devices to keep other patients safe at home
• With kids confined to their rooms, Child Life specialists have had to find safe, distanced ways to keep kids stimulated. So, they ramped up Child Life TV, doubling their schedule to 15 live weekday shows and four weekend shows, plus launching a brand-new YouTube channel for patients and families