(With files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)
The CEO of the BC Care Providers Association would like to see all visitors who attend long-term care or assisted living facilities be fully vaccinated.
This comes as the province rolls out third shots for our most vulnerable who are living in these facilities.
Terry Lake referenced the unrelenting fourth wave in Northern Health as a prime example of why the province should take this step.
“We want to make sure that every portal of entry of this virus is blocked. This is the most vulnerable setting you can imagine for COVID-19 and one only has to look at Jubilee Lodge to see how deadly this is.”
“With Delta, the variant is so transmissible that I don’t think we can take a chance. I think it does make sense that they should be vaccinated and with the BC vaccination card system, it would really not be that difficult to do.”
Lake is also puzzled as to why the province didn’t include assisted living or long-term care facilities in its original proof of vaccination launch.
“If people need to be vaccinated to go to a movie or to a restaurant, then it only makes sense that they should be vaccinated to visit a long-term care facility as well.”
He mentioned the Care Providers Association has received very little information from the province on how the shots will be rolled out or who will administer them.
Lake stated the lone exception is Vancouver Coastal Health who indicated the Moderna vaccine will be used as a booster.
Lastly, Lake would like to see more time given to long-term care workers who were late getting vaccinated as the October 12th deadline to be fully inoculated is fast approaching
“Because the last thing we want is to have a shortage of workers as that would really impair our ability to look after residents in care.”
The Ministry of Health announced yesterday (Monday) 32 intensive care patients in Northern Health have had to be transferred outside the region because local facilities are overloaded.
The region has double the per-capita rate of new cases each day, and four times the number of hospitalizations.