SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — A union representing front-line health-care workers says one of its members in the Edmonton area has died from COVID-19.
The union says Rose Vandelannoite worked as a health-care aide at the Sherwood Park Summerwood Village retirement home, where she was the chief union steward.
Local 3000 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America says she became infected with the novel coronavirus at work in early December and died in hospital on Sunday.
A fundraising page set up by the union on the online platform Fundrazr had taken in nearly $6,300 by this morning to help Vandelannoite’s family cover funeral expenses.
It says she was committed to her work, devoted to the residents and tireless in advocating for her co-workers.
The union adds she was a proud mother to two adult children and that many friends and co-workers will miss her.
Alberta reported the deaths of three other health care workers last week: a health-care aide at a Calgary long-term care facility, a woman in the Edmonton zone whose occupation has not been released and a physician who contracted COVID-19 outside the workplace.
The union represents nearly 9,000 workers — mostly in front-line health-care fields — in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
