Quarter of care home staff in North not vaccinated against Covid 19

about 4 years in The Irish Times

Care home workers have been urged to get Covid-19 jabs after it emerged that about a quarter of staff have not been vaccinated.
On Thursday, Eddie Lynch, Northern Ireland’s independent commissioner for older people, said that more than a fifth of care homes in the North were experiencing coronavirus outbreaks.
The North’s Department of Health disclosed that currently there are outbreaks at 103 care homes in Northern Ireland.
Mr Lynch said that unlike last year the outbreaks involved small numbers of cases and that the number of people getting very seriously ill was “very small at the minute”.
However, in light of official figures showing around a quarter of care staff have not been vaccinated, he appealed for such workers to get inoculated.
“I would call on anyone who can be vaccinated to do so as soon as possible because we all know from this virus that the higher percentage of people who are vaccinated the less chance of transmitting the virus,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“My appeal would be don’t delay, go and get your jab now. It’s better, not just in care homes, but for everyone in society if more people get the vaccine as soon as possible,” he added.
“The implications of this are serious in the sense of the big impact in relation to outbreaks is the impact it has on visiting. I know many families are extremely worried about this,” said Mr Lynch.
Meanwhile, the North’s health department in its daily bulletin on Thursday afternoon reported three more deaths of coronavirus patients.
There were 25 deaths in the past seven days compared with 16 in the previous week.
There were 1,641 new virus cases confirmed. There are 226 patients receiving Covid-19 treatment in Northern Ireland hospitals with 39 in intensive care and 27 on ventilators. Hospital capacity is at 101 per cent.

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