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All Alberta Health Services employees, including frontline health-care workers, must be fully immunized for COVID-19 by Oct. 31, the regional authority announced Tuesday.
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The step for required immunization is being taken to protect patients, vulnerable and immunocompromised Albertans, and anyone who visits an AHS site, including health-care facilities.
“It has always been our responsibility to protect our patients and to look after one another. That’s what this new policy does,” said Dr. Verna Yiu, president and CEO of AHS.
“We believe it helps us fulfil our commitment to providing safe, timely care to those who need it, while helping build a wall around our health-care facilities.”
The policy will apply to all AHS, Alberta Precision Labs, Carewest, CapitalCare and Covenant Health employees, members of the medical and midwifery staffs, students, and volunteers, and other persons acting on their behalf.
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Contracted continuing care providers as well as all contracted health-care workers acting on behalf of AHS are also included.
The latest an employee can receive their second dose is Oct. 16, two weeks before Oct. 31. Any employee who is unable to be immunized due to a medical reason or for reasons under the Alberta Human Rights Act will be “reasonably accommodated.”
Yiu said AHS believes most workers will want to get vaccinated. But if someone does not get vaccinated and has not been granted an exemption, the health authority will be meeting with them.
“We are setting up a process where each of the cases will be reviewed, and we’ll be meeting with the worker to discuss their concerns around vaccination and providing educational resources,” Yiu said.
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“And if after all of that, it may result in an unpaid leave of absence to allow for compliance and for them to consider vaccinations.”
The exact details are still being worked out as AHS is engaging with stakeholders and unions.
Yiu said the health authority does not currently know the exact numbers of those fully vaccinated and this new policy will allow them to collect that data.
“In general, we believe that our uptake is above the public uptake on vaccinations. And obviously in certain areas the uptake will be quite high,” she said.
“We do believe that most of our health-care workers are vaccinated already, but that there still are some percentage that we do need to work with in order to fulfil this new policy requirement.”
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Immunization requirements for frontline employees are not new, Yiu said. For example, staff not immunized against influenza may be assigned to other areas or be restricted from working. New employees must also provide proof of vaccination for other diseases such as measles and hepatitis B.
The announcement comes as Alberta reported 920 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. There were 7,487 tests completed over the last 24 hours for a positivity rate of 12 per cent.
Across the province, there are 11,660 active cases of COVID-19, an increase of 234 from Monday.
There are 431 people in hospital with COVID-19, an increase of 30. Of those, 106 are in intensive care units, an increase of eight.
Four more deaths raised the provincial death toll to 2,375.
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In the Edmonton Zone, which includes the city of Edmonton and surrounding municipalities, there are 3,660 active cases of COVID-19. Of those, 2,542 active cases or 244.9 cases per 100,000 people, are within the city.
Opposition NDP health critic David Shepherd said Tuesday the current COVID-19 situation is not stable and not sustainable. He once again questioned where Premier Jason Kenney was and when he will address the fourth wave.
Kenney hasn’t faced questions from the media since Aug. 9, Health Minister Tyler Shandro has not had an availability since July 28, and chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw gave her last in-person update on Aug. 13.
When asked how he would respond to those who think the government has abdicated responsibility during the fourth wave, Finance Minister Travis Toews denied that government leaders have been absent, pointing to daily Twitter updates from Hinshaw.
“Our goal is to not overwhelm our health-care system in this province. The good news is that we have a great majority of eligible Albertans who’ve stepped up for vaccinations,” said Toews at an unrelated announcement.
Alberta Health Services to require all employees to be fully immunized against COVID-19 by Oct. 31 - Edmonton Journal
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