Nanaimo's Eden Gardens went through a COVID-19 outbreak during the first few months of 2021. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

VACCINE EFFORTS

Province mandates vaccinations for workers in long-term care & seniors facilities

Aug 12, 2021 | 12:42 PM

NANAIMO — Those working in long-term care, or with B.C.’s seniors must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to stay on the job.

By way of a public health order, the province is making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of employment for all workers and personal service providers in long-term care or seniors facilities as of Oct. 12, 2021.

“Once [COVID-19] gets into these highly risky settings, it can spread even to those who are immunized and we have seen spread to residents and staff causing illness but also disruption in the life of people in long-term care,” Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said during a media briefing on Thursday, Aug. 12.

The policy extends to anyone working in a long-term care or seniors home setting, including volunteers, however exceptions will be made for what Henry called “rare exceptions” where a person cannot be vaccinated due to a medical reason.

No details were provided on mandatory vaccinations for other healthcare workers, such as doctors and nurses in hospitals, however the province indicated those details would come before the start of September.

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Dr. Henry said the goal of this new public health order was to limit disruption and provide a better quality of life for those in care facilities.

“Even when resident immunization is high, as it is across the board in facilities in this province, we have seen transmission from unvaccinated staff and it has reinforced the need for protection from all people in long-term care.”

Data from public health in February showed over 90 per cent of residents had received a first dose of a COVID-19 shortly after deliveries arrived in B.C.

As of Aug. 9, 71 per cent of people in the greater Nanaimo region aged 12 and up have received two doses of vaccine. The rate is slightly higher in Oceanside at 74 per cent.

Case counts across B.C. have risen in recent weeks, as the province deals with a fourth wave of infections, however the nature of the infections are different.

Of the 3,585 active cases reported on Wednesday, Aug. 11, less than 80 were hospitalized.

The number of outbreaks in long-term care or seniors facilities is also down considerably from the second and third waves of the pandemic, prior to and in the early days of B.C.’s immunization plan.

“Those outbreaks are not qualitatively the same as they were in the months of January and February, December and November of last year, but nonetheless they are disruptive,” Adrian Dix, provincial health minister, said. “People living in long-term care are vulnerable…to COVID-19 and the fact of an outbreak…is incredibly disruptive and painful to residents in long-term care and their families.”

Both Eden Gardens and Wexford Creek long-term care homes in Nanaimo experienced COVID-19 outbreaks in early 2021.

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