Northeastern Ontario in line with province for long-term care home vaccination rates

More than 97 per cent of long-term care home workers in northeastern Ontario have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as provincial vaccination requirements come into effect.

The province has mandated that long-term care home workers who don't have one dose by Nov. 15 will be let go. Those same workers must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 13.

Long-term care homes were required to report their employee vaccination rates to the province by Oct. 30.

According to that data, 97.1 per cent of workers in the sector in northeastern Ontario had their first dose, and 94.5 per cent were fully vaccinated. For the entire province, those numbers were 98 and 95.3 per cent, respectively.

As of Oct. 30, 17 of 43 long-term care homes in northeastern Ontario reported all of their staff had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Five homes in the region, located in the Algoma District, Sturgeon Falls, and Timmins, reported all their workers were fully vaccinated.

But other long-term care homes have lagged behind. For instance, the Smooth Rock Falls Hospital, which was listed with long-term care home facilities, reported 88 per cent of its workforce had one vaccine dose, and 84 per cent of workers were fully vaccinated.

The Rosedale Centre in Matheson, reported 90 per cent of its workers had one dose, and 83 per cent were fully vaccinated.

While Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made vaccines mandatory for long-term care home workers, he announced in early November he would not impose those same mandates on hospitals.

"The impact of the potential departure of tens of thousands of health care workers is weighed against the small number of outbreaks that are currently active in Ontario's hospitals," he said in a news release.

"Having looked at the evidence, our government has decided to maintain its flexible approach by leaving human resourcing decisions up to individual hospitals."

Individual hospitals, such as Sudbury's Health Sciences North, have imposed their own vaccination mandates.

In Sudbury, all hospital staff, including those working from home, were required to have their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by Nov. 12. The deadline for hospital staff to be fully vaccinated is Dec. 21.