On Monday, Feb. 8, Sakura Intermediate Care Facility announced that 100% of the residents and over 80% of employees completed the second round of COVID-19 vaccinations.
This accomplishment highlights the facility’s ongoing commitment to promote measures that safeguard the health and well-being of its vulnerable seniors and dedicated team members.
After nearly a year of unprecedented challenges, evolving infection control guidance, frequent regulatory oversight and implementation of mitigating strategies to keep the facility’s vulnerable seniors safe from COVID-19 infection, successfully completing the vaccinations provides a measure of hope and relief to weary caregivers and supportive family members who look forward to reuniting with their loved ones.
As the Los Angeles County positivity rate continues to trend downwards, and with the added layer of protection from the COVID-19 vaccine, Sakura ICF looks forward to resuming family visits this month, in accordance with core principles of infection prevention, this month.
Sakura ICF picked up its first allotment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warehouse on New Year’s Eve. By Jan. 8, all residents received their first dose and by Jan. 12, all consenting healthcare workers were vaccinated. In total, 119 doses of the vaccine were administered.
Vaccine recipients were closely monitored for adverse reactions for a minimum of 15 minutes immediately after the injection. Residents continued to be monitored for side effects, at least every eight hours, for three days. All residents tolerated the vaccine well with just a few experiencing tenderness at the injection site. Some employees experienced side effects such as body aches, fatigue, chills, headache and/or fever that resolved within one or two days.
The second inventory of vaccine was delivered to the facility on Feb. 2. As the facility had anticipated vaccine recipients may experience more moderate side effects after the second dose, resident and employee vaccinations were strategically scheduled to ensure adequate staffing resources were available to closely monitor the residents and to provide healthcare workers with time off, if needed, to manage potential adverse reactions.
Residents continued to tolerate the vaccine well, with just a few experiencing fatigue, body aches or chills. There were no staffing issues related to employee response to the vaccine.