More than 5,500 unvaccinated B.C. health-care workers could soon be out of work as deadline nears
With just one week to go before B.C.'s broader COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health-care workers comes into effect, about 5,500 employees have yet to receive their first dose.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said that number doesn't include unvaccinated workers from long-term care homes and assisted living facilities, who were forced from their jobs on Oct. 12 when the province imposed its mandate in those settings.
Those who are waiting for a medical exemption claim to be assessed have been allowed to remain at work under additional precautions.
The 5,512 workers from hospitals and other health-care settings who remain unvaccinated – and who represent four percent of the 129,924 employees facing the expanded mandate – have until Oct. 26 to get their first dose to avoid facing the same consequences.
"We're hopeful, of course, that people will move to get vaccinated and comply with the upcoming order," Dix said.
According to the public health order implementing the mandate, employees who only have one dose can continue working as long as they take certain precautions, and get their second dose between 28 and 35 days after their first.
Workers who fail to meet the Oct. 26 deadline will have until Nov. 15 to get their first dose, and won't be able to return to their jobs until seven days after the shot. They also have to get their second within 35 days.
A full 93 per cent of health-care workers employed outside of the long-term care and assisted living system – or 121,048 people – are already fully vaccinated, and another three per cent have had their first shot.
"Essentially what we're seeing with the 96 per cent mark is a very similar number to what we saw in assisted living and in long-term care," Dix noted.
On Wednesday, the health minister said the province is working with hospitals and facilities to mitigate potential staffing shortages created by the mandate. He also pointed out that COVID-19 outbreaks can be disruptive to staffing levels.
"When people are off sick from COVID-19 or as contacts of COVID-19, it affects staffing in hospitals as well and continues to do so. So this measure is necessary," he said.
Dr. Bonnie Henry and Dix have both acknowledged that health-care staff are stressed, and in many cases, stretched to the limits.
Dozens of patients from Northern Health have had to be airlifted to other parts of the province as cases and hospitalizations soar in that region. Experts blame the low levels of immunization in the north.
According to officials, the region with the highest number of unvaccinated health-care workers is Interior Health (seven per cent), followed by Northern Health (six per cent) and Island Health (five per cent).
The mandate doesn't apply to the First Nations Health Authority.
When the vaccine mandate for long-term care and assisted living took effect last week, 1,955 of the 48,879 affected workers across B.C. were unvaccinated, including a number of casual employees.
If they decide to get vaccinated, they are also welcome to return to work under similar conditions.
Long-term care homes and assisted living facilities were the first subjected to the mandate because of the deadly consequences seen this year during the resurgence of COVID-19 outbreaks, blamed in part on the highly contagious Delta variant.
Officials have noted the bodies of vulnerable seniors and others in care are sometimes less capable of mounting a strong antibody response after vaccination.
"We know these are settings where transmission causes strain on the system if health-care workers are infected, but also can mean transmission to those who are most vulnerable to severe illness," Henry said last week.
"Few know better than those working in long-term care and assisted living what the impact of COVID-19 has been on our seniors and elders," Henry said last week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the newest entry to space travel
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.