Photo: BC Government. Flickr
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry
With only 65 percent of the employees at the Cottonwoods Care Center in Kelowna choosing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and the resulting outbreak in the nursing home, Dr. Bonnie Henry all health workers to get vaccinated if they can.
A COVID-19 outbreak was reported at the local nursing home on Sunday, and 11 residents and two employees have tested positive for the virus by Thursday.
This outbreak comes more than five weeks after the COVID-19 vaccine was offered to all nursing home workers and residents of BC. In Cottonwoods, 35 percent of employees were against the vaccine, and as of mid-February, 18 percent of residents weren’t vaccinated.
Infection rates in nursing homes in British Columbia have dropped dramatically in the last few weeks following the vaccination campaign. In the past week, only 12 long-term care residents tested positive for the virus – 11 of whom are residents of Cottonwoods.
During Thursday’s COVID-19 press conference, Dr. Henry addressed some of the early concerns nursing home staff may have had about the new vaccines.
“The nursing home staff came first for vaccines and many had concerns, they had legitimate questions about these new vaccines and we are addressing them now,” she said. “We are more confident now, we now know that many more of us had the vaccine and that it is safe.
“We learn because we now have tens of millions of doses around the world that have been given into people. We understand the responses to them, we understand some of the medium term, and we get more information about longer term effects. “
Dr. Henry said they are working to educate all health care workers about the new vaccines, but noted that they would not make mandatory vaccination for health care workers.
“I encourage all health workers, it is important for all of us, for our own protection, but also for the protection of our communities and our families and this example to support the vaccinations, the safe and effective vaccines we have been using” , she said.
Dr. Internal health medical officer Sue Pollock said Monday that eight of the infected Cottonwoods residents had received their vaccinations but had not yet developed immunity. She said Monday that all infected residents are “fine”.
However, a health care worker at Cottonwoods told Castanet they were frustrated with the lack of support they received at the facility and the outbreak came as no surprise.
To date, 29,782 long-term care residents in BC – 96 percent – have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 38,785 nursing home workers – greater than 90 percent – have also received it.
