A COVID outbreak at a Campbell River care facility is the kind of wake-up call the province needs to make vaccinations mandatory for all staff working in long-term care, according to the head of the B.C. Care Providers’ Association.
Terry Lake, chief executive of the organization, which has a membership of about 400 care homes, said the fact that three staff members of the Discovery Harbour long-term care home tested positive for COVID was not surprising.
While the three had all been fully vaccinated, they were working in a home where only 60 per cent of staff have been immunized. “They could have caught the virus from an asymptomatic, non-vaccinated person,” Lake said. “They’re put at risk by others who are not vaccinated.”
Lake said the vaccination rate among staff in some care homes still isn’t high enough, especially given the increasing prevalence of the Delta variant of the virus, which is considerably more transmissible.
“If you don’t have 90-95 per cent vaccine uptake, you do put people at risk,” he said.
Ian West, spokesman for Park Place Seniors Living, which operates Discovery Harbour, said two of the staff at the home, who are related and live together, showed symptoms last week. They were tested and found to have COVID. A third staff member showed mild symptoms this week and tested positive as well.
West said residents, who have all been vaccinated, are at low risk because the staff in question were rarely in contact with them.
“But we are basically on high alert,” he said, noting they are monitoring residents for symptoms, maintaining strict cleaning protocols and have shut down social visits. “So there is now no social visitation for families except for those deemed essential (for care or in cases where the resident is near end of life).”
West said the facility has been updating the families of residents with callouts and email.
He said they are not doing rapid testing at the home, as they have been told by Island Health they will be advised when to implement that program.
Lake said having to shut down social visits only weeks after the province relaxed the rules is just not fair.
“This care home now has to go into lockdown and people won’t be able to see loved ones as readily as they could,” he said. “That’s the heartbreaking part, that after a year and a half of being shut out from family and loved ones, they finally get a taste of freedom and normal visiting and this happens.”
Lake said residents in nearly all care homes in B.C., including Discovery Harbour, have been fully vaccinated. The problem, he said, is the uptake among staff.
“We agree with the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Nurses Union that health-care workers should have a COVID vaccination. This is not the flu — this is a deadly virus,” he said, noting nowhere is that more important than in long-term care, where the most vulnerable people live.
Island Health said 95 per cent of long-term care residents within the health authority are fully vaccinated. An immunization clinic was held Friday at Discovery Harbour for staff and residents to ensure anyone who wants a vaccine can get one.
Lake said at this point, care homes are not allowed to keep track of the vaccination rates of staff and can only glean data voluntarily from their workers.
He said there is supposed to be a program to collect such data, but that has yet to be unveiled by health authorities.
According to the province, a policy should be in place next month to have long-term care and seniors’ assisted living facilities provide public health officials with information on all residents, staff, personal service providers and volunteers so their immunization status can be determined.
The Health Ministry also noted rapid COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated workers is still being developed.
Lake said new staff at places like Discovery Harbour must be vaccinated before they are hired, but the rules do not apply to staff already in place. Health authorities have suggested those staff who are not vaccinated must wear full personal protection equipment and be given rapid tests three times a week, he said, but no plan has been released for how that will happen. “The dial has changed on this conversation because as much as the vaccine has helped, the gap in uptake is leaving people at risk.”
For now, West said his company is insisting all new hires are fully vaccinated and is looking at education programs to convince those not already vaccinated to roll up their sleeves.
“We are hoping all those that can be vaccinated, but choose not to, that education will show that vaccines are safe … it won’t make them sick and will protect them,” he said.
