ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - Most families were barred from entering nursing homes during the pandemic. Many facilities still have strict guidelines for visitors in place to protect residents against the coronavirus. The latest figures from St. Louis City and County show that many of the staff going in and out on a daily basis aren't vaccinated against COVID.
That's cause for concern for Marjorie Moore, Executive Director of VOYCE, an advocacy group for nursing home residents.
"We worry about a lot of staff members who are unvaccinated being around residents because they have complicated medical histories," explains Moore. "You don't go into a skilled nursing facility just because of one thing, usually it's multiple things."
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Looking at data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Moore tells KMOX there are some facilities that have extremely low care staff vaccination rates. The figures provided by VOYCE (current as of 7/25/21) show one facility in particular with a less than 10% COVID vaccine rate for healthcare staff. KMOX News has called that facility seeking comment.
More than a dozen others on the list of 75 skilled nursing sites have healthcare employee vaccination rates lower than 30%.
Statewide, says Moore, "just over 50% of staff at nursing homes and long term care facilities are vaccinated. A little over 80% of residents are, so that's a really good thing." In St. Louis City and County, more than half of the sites have staff vaccination rates over 50%. At several, virtually all healthcare employees have received the COVID vaccine. KMOX News has also reached out to one of those facilities to see how they're achieving such high rates.
Listen to 1120 AM and 98.7 FM for updates to this story.
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