Staff at long-term-care homes across Ontario will have to either prove they’ve had a COVID-19 vaccine or attend an educational session about the risks of opting out if they don’t have a medically documented reason for declining the shot. It will also be mandatory for homes to have an immunization policy, and track its implementation, including staff vaccination rates. The policies must be in place by July 1.
Not many personal support workers (PSW) work in hospitals, at least not in Ontario. In fact, only 7% of them do, according to some sources. However, this is changing. More PSW jobs are being opened in hospitals than ever before, especially in areas like rehabilitation, critical care, and palliative care areas.
Researchers concluded that even unvaccinated health workers had a lower rate of lab-confirmed cases than the overall community: 1.33 per 10,000 person-days versus 1.96. The paper was written by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health.
The Ontario government announced on May 10 that high-risk health care workers, including patient-facing staff working in homes and the community, had been added to the list of people eligible to receive their second dose of vaccine sooner than the province’s standard four-month interval. However, they can’t access their second shots because none of the hospitals, vaccine clinics, or services are updating to reflect that policy.
COVID-19 has taught many lessons to all of us, especially those who work in the healthcare sector, one of the most affected by this crisis. In this article, four local front-line workers share the biggest lessons they have learned during the pandemic, and provide some advice for other healthcare workers and the general public.
According to immunology experts, there are two most common types of side effects that people should expect, and not be alarmed by, following the COVID-19 vaccine.
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