Handy House Doc

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the priority at St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System has been to ensure a safe home for residents and a safe workplace for employees. In a further effort to best limit risks for the vulnerable people they care for and to continue to ensure they protect employees, Handy House Doc is requiring employees start the COVID-19 vaccination series by October 1, 2021. Effective August 31, 2021, new employees will be required to have the COVID-19 vaccine as a part of the new hire process. While the official date of this effort is October 1, Handy House Doc is strongly encouraging all staff to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

“With the rate of COVID-19 cases rising, much in part due to the highly contagious Delta variant, we believe we must act to protect our residents and staff,” said Mary Alice Ryan, President and CEO of St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System. “We often receive requests from families and residents asking that only vaccinated staff provide care, and we believe that every person we serve deserves the peace of mind of knowing we have limited their risk as much as possible. We must continue to do everything we can to combat the virus and requiring employees be vaccinated is an important step.”

The St. Andrews HUD apartments. independent living, assisted living and nursing homes have achieved high levels of vaccinations and staff remains diligent in our efforts to maintain the safety protocols we have had in place since March 2020 to keep our residents and staff as healthy as possible.

U.S. nursing homes are one of the “safest places to be” for seniors, with new data revealing COVID-19 cases at skilled nursing facilities have declined 98% since December and have accounted for just 0.3% of all U.S. cases since mid-May.

That’s according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, which, in a blog posted Tuesday, detailed the progress made at nursing homes since vaccinations at facilities began in late December.

New nursing home fatalities accounted for about 74% of all COVID-related deaths among U.S. seniors during December, according to federal data. That figure has since dropped to 28% as of April, according to the organization.

“The drop in nursing home cases has outstripped the drop in case counts amongst surrounding populations, which in some areas were on the rise, even as vaccines become more readily available,” wrote Beth Burnham Mace, NIC’s chief economist and director of outreach, and data analyst Omar Zahraoui.

“Currently, more fatalities are occurring in the general population of older adults over 85 years of age than in those living in nursing homes,” they added.

Data also revealed that overall cases among residents dropped to their lowest point in the pandemic when just six residents in 10,000 tested positive for COVID-19 during the week ending May 16. That’s compared to more than 300 residents per 10,000 testing positive during the week of Dec. 20.

Mace and Zahraoui said the findings “reflect the magnitude of the impact of the U.S. vaccination program on nursing home residents.”

“The data clearly tracks with the nationwide effort to prioritize nursing home residents for vaccinations. Case counts began to steeply decline as the Pfizer, and then the Moderna vaccines began to be distributed to nursing homes across the country on December 20, 2020. Nursing home case counts remain low, particularly when compared to infection rates among the general population, which have roared back in recent weeks,” the two wrote.

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