Eight senior living communities in Lancaster County are planning to make vaccination mandatory for all employees.
According to a release made public by the Willow Valley Communities public relations team the locations include:
- Brethren Village
- Garden Spot Village
- Landis Communities
- Luthercare
- Mennonite Home Communities
- Moravian Manor Communities
- Tel Hai Retirement Community
- Willow Valley Communities
The communities expressed appreciation for staff members who have helped the Commonwealth navigate an uncertain twenty plus month long health crisis.
“We are very appreciative of all our team members,” said Willow Valley Communities Chief Marketing Officer Brian Rutter. “It is a decision that was made with thoughtful deliberation and very careful deliberation.”
The communities say that the spread of the Delta variant and a dramatic rise in cases played a role in the decision.
A joint statement reads, “We believe that the COVID-19 vaccine provides a safe and effective way to help prevent severe illness, hospitalizations, death, and the spread of the virus. A vaccinated workforce is far less likely to infect residents, fellow employees, and their families.”
Rutter says that Willow Valley Communities has done education, incentives, more but need to get to one hundred percent fully vaccinated and not 70-75 percent or the current rate.
“Our fully vaccinated deadline is November 15th,” said Rutter. “We are still trying to gather reaction to the news and will provide extra vaccination clinics.”
Rutter spoke with CBS 21’s Ryan Eldredge about the 20-25 percent of employees who are still not vaccinated, not getting into specifics but talking generally about why the number of unvaccinated remains relatively high.
“I don’t know what the hesitancy is about,” said Rutter. “I have listened and learned. I guess there are some concerns about the safety and testing that may have gone into this but we believe that this a powerful and safe vaccine. We also believe that it will prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death and that is the goal here.”
The communities will allow for medical or religious exemptions. Willow Valley Communities will not terminate employees who do not comply.
“When we get to the deadline a team member who is not fully vaccinated will be removed from the schedule and given an additional opportunity,” said Rutter. “We are very hopeful we will get to one hundred percent.”