The deadline for about 46,000 health-care workers in long-term care and assisted living to be fully vaccinated has been extended, and visitors will also be required to get vaccinated, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced Tuesday.
In August, all staff as well as volunteers and businesses offering services within seniors homes, from hairdressers to dieticians, were told they needed to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 12.
Now health-care workers are allowed to continue to work with a first shot of vaccine as long as they commit to receiving a second shot and agree to take other health precautions, including COVID testing, in the interim.
Terry Lake, president of the B.C. Care Providers Association, said the move will mitigate a feared staff shortage in the wake of the deadline.
“We are happy to see an extension of the timeline for completing a vaccination plan,” said Lake, a former health minister under the B.C. Liberals. “It encourages those with vaccine hesitancy to do the right thing and remain on the job.”
Henry said while the deadline remains Oct. 12, this “evolution” of the plan is intended to avoid penalizing those already committed to being fully vaccinated.
“We don’t want to penalize somebody if they’ve made that correct decision,” said Henry, who also extended the vaccine requirement to visitors, who must show proof of full immunization starting Oct. 12.
She said it’s especially important as the season of increased respiratory illness begins, although there will be exemptions for visitors to residents in palliative and end-of-life care.
Lake said his association, which represents private care homes, is pleased to see the vaccination requirement for visitors. “Although visitors have not been the source of transmission to date, Delta is a game-changer,” he said.
Those hired between Oct. 12 and Oct. 26 must have had at least one dose of COVID vaccine seven days prior to starting work and receive their second within 28 to 35 days, Henry said.
“It is important for us to have people who are vaccinated working in these high-risk settings,” said Henry. “We know the vaccination rates are high, but in some places they are not yet high enough.
Health-care workers in long-term care and assisted living without at least one dose of vaccine after Oct. 12 “will be off work, as of that day, without pay,” said Henry.
If they decide at that point to get a first dose, they won’t be able to return to work for at least seven days, with additional precautions in place, she said. They must also receive a second dose within 35 days of the first.
Anyone hired after Oct. 25 will need to be fully vaccinated to work in any long-term care or assisted-living facility, she said.
The vaccine mandate extends to volunteers and businesses, including hairdressers, who visit or work out of seniors homes.
B.C. Heath Minister Adrian Dix said Tuesday that health authorities are putting in place plans to address potential labour shortages, depending on how many workers are forced to leave temporarily or permanently as a result of not being vaccinated.
While not all long-term care and assisted-living facilities have yet submitted the vaccination status of their workers, Dix said, information from those who have responded shows 95 per cent of health-care workers in long-term care have had a first shot and 91 per cent have received a second.
In assisted-living facilities, 97 per cent have received a first dose and 94 per cent a second.
Dix said anyone who is unvaccinated at the end of the day on Oct. 12 will be going on leave of absence without pay unless they have a medical exemption.
Grounds for medical exemption for COVID-19 vaccines are “very few,” Henry said.
Information has been issued to physicians and nurse practitioners on what constitutes a medical exemption, she said, and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control is working with allergists and immunologists on the medical exemptions.
The requirements to request an official medical exemption are available on the provincial health officer’s website.
Anyone awaiting an official medical-exemption ruling, which can take time, must take extra preventive measures in the meantime, Henry said.
Health-care workers in other health-care facilities, including hospitals and community-care settings, must show proof of vaccination by Oct. 26. Visitors must also show proof of vaccination.
Henry said vaccination rates for that group are strong, similar to those in long-term care.
