A day after its new policy went into effect, the County of Essex said 98.6 per cent of its staff are compliant with the COVID-19 vaccine policy.
Warden Gary McNamara called compliance to the new policy "amazing" and said the task now is to reach out to the remaining 1.6 per cent.
"Going to those individuals and finding out if there are any requirements under medical care or doctors saying they can't have it, or religious issues, or just the timing of getting their shot," he said.
The policy states employees must be fully vaccinated or present a medical or religious exemption. Workers who are not compliant with the policy will be placed on an unpaid leave of absence.
McNamara said compliance jumped in the past week, but he doesn't think the new policy should get all the credit.
"When they really reflect and look back on the last week to ten days, the explosion in the positivity rate has opened some folks' eyes," he explained.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has reported 483 new cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days.
Medical Officer of Health Doctor Wajid Ahmed said the number of shots administered daily also jumped. He said the region went from giving out 400 doses a day on average to between 900 and 1,000 a day more recently.
McNamara said it was incumbent on the county to begin enforcing vaccination as daily case counts rose across the region in recent weeks. Paramedics and staff at the Sun Parlour Long-Term Care Home in Leamington work with those who could be vulnerable to the virus, but there is also an obligation to keep workers safe.
"The workplace itself, it's very important to make sure that the employer has a safe work environment for all of its employees," he said.
The City of Windsor's new vaccination policy also went into effect on Tuesday. BlackburnNews.com has reached out to city officials to find out what compliance is there.
