Ontario to allow fully-vaccinated long-term care staff to work in more than one facility

Ontario’s ministry of long-term care is making changes they say could help ease the strain on the hospital system due to the coronavirus’s third wave– including allowing fully vaccinated long-term care staff to work in more than one facility.

“To help ensure appropriate levels of care for current and new or returning residents, the government has amended orders…to exempt fully immunized long-term care home and retirement home employees from restrictions that prohibit them from working in more than one home, or in another healthcare setting,” the government said in a news release Saturday.

This rule change comes one year after Health Minister Christine Elliott confirmed that workers going from home to home, in part, caused COVID-19 to spread in the long-term care system.

The ministry also says it’s trying to free up scarce beds with measures aimed at hospital patients awaiting placement in a long-term care facility.

It says the province will waive fees for patients who agree to take a spot in a home that may not be their first choice until they’re placed in the facility they want.

It says accepting an alternate placement won’t affect a patient’s standing on the waiting list at the home they prefer.

The Ontario Hospital Association had been calling for similar measures for weeks as hospitalization rates and admissions to intensive care units reach unprecedented levels across much of the province.

On Saturday, for instance, the number of patients in provincial intensive care units climbed to 833, with 600 on a ventilator.

Hospital admissions dipped slightly by 10, but still stood at 2,277.

The province reported 4,094 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday and 24 virus-related deaths.