As the cases of Omicron rise in many parts of the world, we are currently updating the International Living Report on COVID-19 and Long-Term Care section on Vaccination policies, aiming to share, where available, data on vaccination rates for people who use Long-Term Care and for staff working in the sector, including the rates of coverage of third doses or boosters.
We are also tracking the approaches that countries are adopting to increase vaccination uptake among care home staff. Please email a.comas@lse.ac.uk if you’d like to provide additional information or updates for a country or region (or, if you have an LTCcovid contributor account already feel free to update!)
What is happening so far?
Data availability:
- There is no data on vaccinations in care homes in Brazil, but population level data suggests that there are big inequities in distribution of vaccines, with some states having much lower vaccination rates than others.
- Booster or third dose data for care home residents or staff are not routinely reported in Australia, Brazil, Germany and Italy.
Booster/third doses:
- Current booster rates for care home residents in France is at least 64.8%, and nearly 77.8% in England. Rates are lower for staff, for example in England only 33.6% of care home staff and 23.1% of domiciliary care staff had had the booster on the 16th December 2021.
- In Chile, following an initial vaccination campaign in care homes with Coronavac-Sinovac, 83% of care home residents are now boosted with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, staff have also been offered boosters as part of that process.
- The rapid deployment of boosters in Denmark has been credited with reducing mortality in care homes during September 2021, but care home staff have not been prioritized for the booster, but there is a fast population-wide rollout of the booster under way.
- There is concern that, unlike in initial vaccination rollout, in Germany, people who live in care homes or receive care at home have not been consistently prioritized for the booster and people who rely on community-based care may face substantial practical barriers to access vaccination.
Vaccination as a requirement for care home visiting:
- In France, a “health pass” is required to visit health and social care settings (as well as other public spaces), from the 15th December 2021, for people aged 65 or over, the health pass will require having had the booster dose or a negative test, but from January 2022 the “health pass” will become a “vaccine pass”, meaning that a negative test will no longer be sufficient. There is a similar requirement for visitors to care homes in Italy (a “green pass”: either vaccination, a negative test or having recovered from COVID-19).
Mandatory vaccination policies for long-term care staff:
- COVID-19 vaccination is mandatory for long-term care staff in Australia, England, France, Italy and the United States of America. This will also come into force in Germany from 15 March 2022. It has been discussed but not adopted in Denmark and Israel. In Scotland mandatory vaccination was not adopted as by 15 June 2021 all care home staff had been fully vaccinated with two doses.
You can read the full Vaccination policies section here: https://ltccovid.org/questions/3-11/