Canada is failing its seniors as officials struggle to contain fatal outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in long-term care homes across the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.

Long-term care homes in Canada, whose residents are more vulnerable to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, have been hard-hit. In Canada, almost half of the country's total deaths have been in nursing homes.

"We need to do better," Trudeau said at his daily briefing. "Because we are failing our parents, our grandparents, our elders - the greatest generation who built this country. We need to care for them properly."

Ontario and Quebec, the country's largest provinces, have both requested military help as officials face deadly outbreaks and severe staffing shortages in nursing homes.

Ottawa has approved those requests, Trudeau said, but added that it was a short-term solution.

"In Canada, we shouldn't have soldiers taking care of seniors. Going forward in the weeks and months to come, we will all have to ask tough questions about how it came to this," he said.

Other provinces, including Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia, have also reported fatalities, and Canadians have also been barred from visiting their loved ones in nursing homes in an attempt to slow the spread.

"We can't keep our seniors isolated forever," Health Minister Patty Hajdu said, explaining that loneliness also takes a toll on the health of older people.

The nursing home tragedy amid COVID-19 is not alone in Canada.

Related story: COVID-19 Global Roundup: The grim crisis in care homes

On Thursday, Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO), said "up to half of those who have died from COVID-19 were resident in long-term-care facilities. This is an unimaginable human tragedy."

And the United States, the world's biggest country with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases, also struggled with the pandemic inside nursing homes for the elderly.

A Washington Post analysis this week found that nearly one in ten nursing homes in the U.S. have reported cases of the novel coronavirus with a death count that has spiraled into thousands.

(Cover image: Signs of support for workers at Eatonville Care Center, a long-term care home, after several residents died of the coronavirus disease in Toronto, Canada, April 23, 2020. /Reuters)