COVID-19 – Important update for faculty and staff based in health care settings

The BC Provincial Government recently published an updated Public Health Order requiring workers in certain health care settings to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to work in a designated facility. 

You can view the Public Health Order here.

As part of the Order, all UBC faculty, staff or student employees who work in health care settings must have received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by November 15, 2021 in order to continue to work at that site. This includes hospital sites, clinics, and any other place where care is provided. More specifically, for hospital owned buildings, that means the whole building is covered by the Order. For UBC owned buildings, only the clinic area itself is covered, not the whole building. 

For those who are fully vaccinated, no further action is required. For those who are only partially vaccinated, or have not been vaccinated, their access to the workplace will be limited by their vaccination status, which may result in being put on unpaid leave.

Targeted communication will be issued to the relevant faculty, staff and student employees. Your Faculty’s Sr. HR Leader, HR Advisor and Faculty Relations Senior Manager are available to consult with you and support these conversations as needed, and you can share this communication with impacted employees.

If you have any questions about the Order and how it might affect your unit, please reach out to your HR contacts. As a reminder, you can register for a COVID-19 vaccination at https://immunizebc.ca/.
 

Andrew Szeri
Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBC Vancouver

Ananya Mukherjee Reed 
Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBC Okanagan

Marcia Buchholz
Vice-President, Human Resources