Patrick Kwong’s mother came home.

Kwong desperately wanted to take his 93-year-old mother out of a Scarborough long-term care home where a staffer tested positive for the COVID-19 virus late last week.

He decided if he could get his mom out of the home, he would even move back in with his ex-wife Pj — the couple divorced in 1997 — so the two of them and one of their daughters could take care of mom, Chui Tai Kwong, at Pj’s house in Scarborough.

Thursday morning, days after the Tendercare Living Centre on McNicoll Avenue said no to Chui Tai leaving, the centre changed course and allowed her to go home.

“I’m relieved, the whole family is relieved. It’s been an intense few days trying to figure this out,” Patrick, 66, said in an interview Thursday at his ex-wife’s home. The family was enjoying a pleasant morning with his mother shortly after Patrick picked her up from the centre where she has lived for four years.

He wanted his mother out because people over 80 are most at risk from the virus. In Washington State, most of the 74 COVID-19 deaths have been seniors at a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle. In B.C., seven people at the Lynn Valley Care Centre, a facility for seniors in North Vancouver, died from the virus.

Patrick’s ex-wife was heavily involved in getting her mother-in-law. She cited the same concerns.

They plan to keep her at home as long as it takes the COVID-19 pandemic to pass. She relies on a walker for balance but has no cognitive issues.

Because Patrick has power of attorney, he had to sign a waiver agreeing that his mother won’t go back to Tendercare while the home is in quarantine. He also must contact the Local Health Integration Unit to ensure her bed will be held if she stays away more than 21 days. The waiver also makes clear he is taking full responsibility for his mother while he cares for her.

“It’s open-ended as far as her return to the home is concerned,” Pj said Thursday.

The Kwong family is pleased with the care Chui Tai has always received at Tendercare. They say the staff do great work overall, and the facility, which has 254 residents, has been a godsend.

But a few weeks ago as the novel coronavirus began to spread in seniors’ homes, Patrick started thinking about taking his mother out because he believed she was at risk.

As the Star reported Saturday, the facility imposed a quarantine on the second floor of the building after a staff person tested positive for the virus Friday.

Francis Martis, executive director at Tendercare, told the Star Tuesday that even though Chui Tai was a resident on the third floor and the staff member who tested positive was on the second floor, Chui Tai had visited the second floor dining room and was being quarantined in her room as a precaution until March 25.

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On Thursday, Martis said he, the home’s director of care and a Toronto Public Health official discussed the Kwongs’ request on a conference call. They decided to release Chui Tai because she’s at a low risk of having contracted the virus.

“The chances are slim she came into contact with the infected person,” Martis said Thursday.

When asked how decisions are reached concerning when a resident can leave a long-term care facility when there’s a positive COVID-19 test, Toronto Public Health said, “TPH provides infection prevention and control recommendations and guidance to directors of long-term care homes when there is an infectious disease case, exposure or outbreak in a facility.

“It is up to the director of a long-term care centre to make a decision about whether a resident can be released. Individuals who have had close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 are required to self-isolate for 14 days,” Toronto Public Health added.