As nursing homes continue to accept new residents into their facilities, it is important that staff members get vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to prevent the kind of outbreaks that devastated these facilities this past year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all staff members of long-term nursing care facilities be vaccinated to keep themselves and staff safe.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to ensure that all long-term care facilities across Georgia and across the country have access to these vaccines. It is imperative that these vaccines be provided to long term care facility staff members, because the pandemic has not resulted in a break in admissions of new patients. After some long-term care facilities stopped taking admissions in the middle of the pandemic, many have now opened up admissions for new residents. These long-term care facilities look after senior Georgians who may be unable to live independently. Most of these persons live with chronic health conditions and may be medically fragile, and therefore, may be prime candidates for the kind of Covid infections, and even the kind of breakthrough infections post-vaccination, that are being seen.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that it is imperative that all nursing facility residents be protected by healthcare personnel who have been completely vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reiterates that it is important that infection control strategies continue to remain in place even after all staff members have been vaccinated. This is to minimize the risk of breakthrough infections, or infections that can set in even after both doses of the vaccine have been administered.