TORONTO -- Some semblance of normalcy has returned for residents of Laval鈥檚 Villa Val des Arbres, a long-term care home recovering from a widespread outbreak of COVID-19.

Now that patients inside the home are stable and staff recovered from illness are returning to work, the home is tasked with the reality of adjusting to life after the outbreak, armed with the knowledge that it will never be the same.

鈥淒id we do everything we should have done to prevent [the virus]? The answer is yes,鈥 co-owner Pierre Belanger told 麻豆影视. 鈥淗ow did the nasty bug come in? We still don鈥檛 know.鈥

Villa Val des Arbres is one of many long-term care homes in Quebec devastated by the pandemic. Located in the suburb of Laval, now considered the latest hotspot for the virus, employees say the care home was transformed into a makeshift hospital at the height of the outbreak, with up to six patients dying every day.

Employees also fell ill, leaving only a quarter of the home鈥檚 staff available to care for the more than 80 residents who tested positive for the virus.

鈥淲e were feeding people until 9:30 at night so they could eat. Everyone stayed in bed, we couldn鈥檛 get them up,鈥 Sophie Dorion, director at Villa Val des Arbres, told 麻豆影视.

鈥淓verybody was crying鈥攚e had no employees.鈥

Anne-Marie Vincent, an employee who became sick with COVID-19, said she and many others were overwhelmed with guilt for not being able to provide care. Vincent, who became so ill she was hospitalized, said she felt 鈥渦seless鈥 and cried after her colleagues would tell her which residents were positive and who had died.

Fifty-three residents at the home have since died from COVID-19.

But these stories are not unique to Villa Val des Arbres.

At Laval鈥檚 Sainte-Dorothée, staff describe the last few weeks as hell on earth. Ninety residents there have died, according to the latest government update鈥攖he most of any Quebec long-term care home.

鈥淲e had a patient that didn鈥檛 die but was traumatized, because they left a dead body beside him for almost a day before they came and picked him up,鈥 Sylvie Morin, assistant head nurse at the Sainte-Dorothée long-term care home,

Advocates say these deaths happened for 鈥渘o good reason鈥 in some cases, noting that some provinces, Quebec included, didn鈥檛 move as quickly as they should have to protect vulnerable residents in care homes.

鈥淲e know that some of the important things that we need to do have not been done in Quebec, so we鈥檙e seeing a terrible loss in life,鈥 Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of CanAge, Canada's national seniors' advocacy organization, told 麻豆影视 Channel Friday.

鈥淏ut we鈥檙e also very frustrated because we鈥檙e not getting some of the supports for long-term care to save some of those lives.鈥

Watts says many long-term care homes lack the sanitation and personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to curtail outbreaks, noting that changes in protocol need to take place immediately to protect the residents that remain in these homes.

鈥淲e鈥檙e losing mothers, fathers, grandparents every day,鈥 she said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to wait for an inquiry to do the things that we already know we need to do.鈥

Watts says long-term care providers need to move to provide vaccinations, such as high-dose flu vaccinations, to residents in order to prevent an 鈥渆pidemic on top of a pandemic.鈥 She notes that long-term care workers also need to be given better incentives to stay in the field, including access to proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and essential worker designation.

鈥淏eing deemed essential comes with responsibility too. We need to keep our workers safe,鈥 she said.