The provincial government is taking further action to protect long-term care residents.
Effective November 15, fully COVID vaccinations will be mandatory for all in-home staff, support workers, students and volunteers.
Minister responsible Rod Phillips says current vaccination rates aren’t high enough in the face of the risk posed by the Delta variant.
“Currently, 367 of the 626 homes have staff immunization levels below 90% and more concerningly 99 homes have a rate below 80%.”
The new requirements include:
-Staff who do not have all required doses or a valid medical exemption by the November 15 deadline will not be able to enter a long-term care home to work.
-Newly hired staff will be required to be fully vaccinated before they begin working in a home unless they have a valid medical exemption.
-Homes will begin randomly testing fully vaccinated individuals, including staff, caregivers and visitors, to help detect possible breakthrough cases of COVID-19 as soon as possible.
Other immediate provincial measures include:
-rigorous inspections to reinforce infection prevention and control
-regularly testing all individuals who are not fully vaccinated
-providing a COVID-19 vaccine promotion toolkit available in 12 languages
-organizing mobile clinics at homes with lower vaccination rates and homes experiencing outbreaks
-providing homes with support so they can administer vaccines themselves in a timely manner
-working to increase the hours of direct care for residents to an average of four hours per day by 2024-2025
-collecting more accurate vaccination data at the home level
-offering third doses to long-term care residents
Phillips notes as of September 30, 64% of residents have already received their third dose.
