COVID-19 Vaccination Protects Patients and Healthcare Workers
2021-09-18
Last month we announced a COVID-19 vaccination policy for
all staff, physicians, students, contractors, and volunteers.
Effective October 15, all individuals working, learning or
volunteering on-site at CCH will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and all
new hires will also be required to be fully vaccinated.
CCH made a commitment to our staff, physicians and community
that we would do everything we could to ensure their safety from the onset of
this pandemic. Requiring vaccination against COVID-19 is an important step to
ensuring the safety of staff, physicians and patients.
This policy isn’t unique to Cornwall Community Hospital
(CCH); other hospitals in our region, and many more across the province, have
now implemented mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies following direction
from the provincial government.
CCH proudly cares for some of our community’s most
vulnerable patients who may be at increased risk for severe illness from
COVID-19. Some of these patients come to our hospital from across Eastern
Ontario for chemotherapy, dialysis, or critical care.
Although vulnerable patients may be fully vaccinated against
COVID-19, studies now indicate some immunocompromised people don’t always
build the same level of immunity after vaccination the way
non-immunocompromised people do.
Healthcare workers can also be at greater risk of
contracting contagious diseases or spreading them, although we do our best to
mitigate that using effective infection prevention and control measures
including personal protective equipment and vaccination.
Our staff and physicians have worked tirelessly to protect
our communities, and they deserve protection and support to enable them to do
their jobs safely, and to the best of their abilities.
“Vaccines lower your chance of getting and spreading certain
diseases and work with your body's natural defenses to help you safely develop
immunity. The vaccines available in Canada are safe, and the majority of new
cases, hospitalizations and deaths throughout Ontario are among those who are
not vaccinated,” says Dr. Lorne Scharf, Chief of Staff at CCH.
The overwhelming majority of CCH staff and physicians are
fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and recent protests have not been a
reflection of our workforce or their unions.
Thanks to the vaccines, we are seeing less outbreaks in
healthcare settings with high vaccination rates such as long-term care homes
and hospitals. Although we have seen positive cases, CCH has not recorded a
COVID-19 outbreak in hospital since the spring.
However, the Delta variant is now posing a new set of
challenges; within the past few weeks, CCH has treated more patients for
COVID-19 than we have all summer (all unvaccinated). Our COVID-19 Assessment
Centre is also now reporting a higher positivity rate than in previous months.
“The Delta variant is twice as transmissible as the original
strain of COVID-19 and 40 to 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha
variant which fuelled Ontario’s third wave and overwhelmed hospitals last
spring. Therefore, making sure that our entire workforce is vaccinated adds an
important layer of protection against the highly-contagious Delta variant and further
protects our vulnerable patients,” explained Dr. Scharf.
New modelling recently released by Ontario's COVID-19
science advisory table says that because the Delta variant is so contagious, at
least 85 per cent of the eligible population needs to be vaccinated by this
fall or hospital occupancy could increase and we could see additional public
health measures.
The good news is that over 78% of the eligible population
within the jurisdiction of the Eastern Ontario Health Unit is fully vaccinated,
a commendable number on its way to slowing a fourth wave, and another reminder
that recent protests are not representative of our workforce or community at
large.
As always, CCH is prepared for whatever comes next and will
always be there for our community. Hospitals have received tremendous community
support throughout the pandemic; now, the community can show their support for
healthcare workers and get vaccinated.