![]() “We can educate and we can cajole and we can ask as much as possible, but the only way we’re going to get to numbers community-wide is more mandates going forward.” Vulnerable patients ![]() “It really is two pandemics at this point,” Ghilarducci said. “Many of these young patients were people without underlying medical conditions, and they were universally unvaccinated,” said. We’ve seen people in their thirties that have died,” Ghilarducci said. “But what we have seen is the younger subgroup coming into the hospitals. “It’s a powerful, powerful testament to how these vaccines work,” he said. Ghilarducci said that as the Delta variant has spread, the county has not seen COVID-related hospitalizations among the highly vaccinated residents of skilled nursing facilities. Still, Ghilarducci said he is “pleased” with the percentage of healthcare workers vaccinated in the 90s, especially in combination with the similarly high rates of vaccination among facility residents. Healthcare worker vaccinationsīefore the Delta variant, many experts thought a safe threshold for herd immunity might happen with around 70% or 80% of the population immune. The 40 residential care facilities average 93%, although data is missing from four facilities, county officials said. Now, the seven skilled nursing facilities in the county have an average staff vaccination rate of at least 90%, county officials said. “Doctors were talking with the staff and doing what they could but there was just a lot of resistance,” Ghilarducci said. Ghilarducci, the county deputy health officer, said the mandates have had a significant impact at nursing homes and residential care facilities. Separately, senior residential care facilities operate under an earlier order where workers can opt out of COVID vaccines and instead be tested weekly - even after Sept. Employees there do not have the option of weekly COVID testing to get out of it. The deadline applies to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and most other healthcare settings. 30 for healthcare workers - including skilled nursing facility staff - to either prove they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19, qualify for an exemption, or potentially lose their jobs. ![]() The California Department of Public Health set a deadline of Thursday, Sept. “They transmitted the virus to medically vulnerable people, and that was where most of our deaths have been.” “We were seeing (COVID) transmission mostly from employees that would come to work who didn’t even know they were ill,” Ghilarducci said. The mandate is important in part because 103 of the 213 COVID deaths in Santa Cruz County have been among skilled nursing and senior residential care residents, according to county data as of Sunday, Sept. David Ghilarducci, Santa Cruz County’s deputy health officer. SANTA CRUZ > As Thursday’s deadline approaches to require COVID-19 vaccinations among healthcare and nursing home staff, Santa Cruz County has at least 9 in 10 healthcare workers vaccinated, according to preliminary county data.īefore the mandate, vaccination rates at skilled nursing and senior residential care facilities were stuck at about 7 in 10, said Dr. ![]() (Pool photo by Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel) Laura Likar, a Dominican Hospital employee, receives a COVID-19 vaccine Dec. ![]()
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