BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side has received new data regarding COVID-19 vaccination rates in area nursing homes.
Nursing homes have been a focus of attention since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic over a year ago, as residents there are among the most vulnerable to the virus.
The data from the New York State Department of Health reflects the vaccination rates among patients and staff at nursing homes in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany counties.
Residents
Among residents, the numbers range from 100% of those at the Mercy Hospital Skilled Nursing Facility being "fully" vaccinated, down to just 37% at the Harris Hill nursing facility in Williamsville. (That number is expected to increase soon, however, as an additional 35%of residents there have received their first dose.)
Canterbury Woods in Williamsville has among the highest rates of fully vaccinated residents at 97%.
Its CEO and Executive Director Rob Wallace says having only 50 beds probably factored into that, but that the rest can be chalked up to the residents themselves.
"Our residents were more than eager ... we just never had any issues at all with residents pushing back against getting vaccinated, so we were fortunate," he said.
Staff
At the same time, however, Canterbury Woods also ranks the highest in terms of staff members who have been fully vaccinated, at 85%.
"We made the decision early not to mandate staff having to be vaccinated," Wallace said.
He says they took a more "casual" approach, which included reminding staff of the efficacy of the vaccines, their increasing availability, and safety.
"And what we found was that more staff, including those who in January decided that it wasn't for them at the them at that time, started to step forward and say, 'Many of my peers have been vaccinated. I've had time to think about it. ... It seems safe', so our numbers continue to creep up," Wallace said.
The data also shows, however, that the" fully" vaccinated rate among staff is less than 50% at about 40% of the area's nursing homes.
The lowest rate was at Buffalo Community Health Care Center on Delaware Avenue, which reported that just 16% of its staff was fully vaccinated.
2 On Your Side reached out to Local 1199 of the SEIU, the union representing most of the nursing home workers in Western New York for comment, But we were told there was no one with the union available to speak with us about this topic on Thursday.