Region's CAO not satisfied with vaccination rate at Sunnyside LTC

As of Tuesday, 87.7 per cent of staff at the regionally-owned Sunnyside Long-Term Care Home in Kitchener have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

"We have seen progress, but are we satisfied? No," said Bruce Lauckner, the region's chief administrative officer at a weekly media briefing Friday. 

"Everybody who can be vaccinated needs to be vaccinated."

Staff, support workers, students and volunteers at all long-term care facilities in the province have until Nov. 15 to get all required doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, or provide a valid medical exemption, according to a provincial directive issued in October.

"Staff who do not have all required doses or a valid medical exemption by the deadline will not be able to enter a long-term care home to work," the province said in a release Oct. 1. 

Asked what will happen to staff at Sunnyside if they aren't yet fully vaccinated by the provincial deadline, Lauckner declined to give specifics.

"Closer to that date I'll be commenting more, but I don't want to speculate on numbers or action at this point," he said. 

For now, Lauckner said the region is working with staff on education "with the hope that everybody who can be vaccinated and who is required to be vaccinated does get vaccinated." 

It isn't clear what positions the unvaccinated staff at Sunnyside occupy. 

The Ontario Nurses Association, which represents nurses at the home, sent CBC Kitchener-Waterloo a statement that said, in part, that the ONA encourages and recommends healthcare workers get the vaccine if they can. 

"ONA supports education and addressing vaccine hesitancy, not penalizing and terminating nurses when we need them the most," the statement said. 

As of Tuesday, 89 per cent of regional staff and 94 per cent of paramedic staff, were fully vaccinated, a regional spokesperson told CBC K-W. 

So far, no regional staff have been laid off due to non-compliance with the region's vaccine policy, the spokesperson said.

On Friday, 88.05 per cent of eligible people 12 and up in the region were fully vaccinated.