In the initial stages of the spread of the virus, Rhode Island had to fire the working staff which was not vaccinated. Now due to the shortage in staff, they have given an option to the health care workers that they can work even if they are COVID-positive.
COVID-Positive Workers Must Be Brought Back To Rhode Island!
The health care workers who are COVID-positive will not handle the normal patients. They will be the in-charge of those patients who are COVID positive just like them.
The only condition that these COVID positive health care workers would have to follow is that they should not have any severe symptoms and should wear an N95 mask at all times. These staff would be able to work only when there is a lack of other members who are not positive in the staff.
There was many working staff who did not agree to get vaccinated because of which the higher authorities had to fire them four months ago. During this period it was reported that almost 31,858 health care workers had to leave their jobs or were fired and had to resign.
This led to a huge shortage of health care workers in many nursing facilities, hospitals, etc. After December 31st it has been changed and even the positive health care workers are allowed to work. It has been notified that if there is a situation where there is a shortage of workers then they should report it to the Department of Health of the state.
The COVID -19 positive patients who are being taken care of by the positive workers would be notified of the same.
As of now, things have been well under control and there was no need for the hospitals to call the COVID -positive health care workers.
Lt. Gov. Dan McKee stated that it was a disappointment that they could not get all of the working members to be vaccinated. He also mentioned that despite this, due to the shortage of staff members that they had no other option but to let the unvaccinated members work. This ensured that all the patients would be taken care of by the health care workers.
It was mentioned that a health care worker who was not vaccinated was at a much higher risk depending upon the number of COVID-positive patients that were present in the facilities.
On the other hand, anyone who has been vaccinated and still turns out to be COVID positive would be at a lower risk. This also lowers the chances of the spread of the virus rapidly.
It was reported by Weldelken that Eleanor Slater called in the COVID-19 positive health care workers who did not have any symptoms on Saturday as well as Sunday. They did not call these positive workers on Monday though.
All of these COVID-19 health care workers were wearing masks at all times and were in contact with only the positive patients of the health care facility.
Seeing from the initial stages to now, the situation of the virus has become very bad and there is an increase in the number of deaths.
According to the state Rep. David, the new policy for staffing only shows us how the mandate that was circulated earlier was a huge mistake.
This shift in the policy is a reflection of how worse the situation has become. Many employees are burnt out after working continuously for two long years since the beginning of the pandemic. This is one of the main causes behind the shortage in the number of workers that are working.
