STAFF in care homes with older adult residents in England may be required to have a Covid-19 vaccine to protect residents from the virus.

Making vaccines a condition of staff deployment would help to further protect older people living in care homes, who are among those most vulnerable to coronavirus. Some care providers are already implementing similar policies.

A five-week consultation has been launched looking at requiring care home providers, caring for older adults, to deploy only those workers who have received their Covid-19 vaccination.

Furness MP Simon Fell said: “I’m interested in seeing the results of the consultation.

“There is precedent – doctors being required to have a Hepatitis B jab, for instance – and it makes sense given that those in care homes are some of the most susceptible to the virus.”

Experts on the social care working group of SAGE advise that 80 per cent of staff and 90 per cent of residents need to be vaccinated to provide a minimum level of protection against outbreaks of Covid-19. Only 53 per cent of older adult homes in England currently meet this threshold.

This means that nearly half of all care homes with older adult residents, home to 150,000 vulnerable people, don’t meet SAGE’s recommended vaccination thresholds for care homes and staff.

Iain Mooney, a Barrow councillor and NHS nurse, said: “I would be very cautious when proposing anything like this as mandatory as it potentially creates a dangerous precedent.

“I would hope all healthcare staff have the vaccine and urge them to do so, if not for themselves and their families then for those they are caring for.

“I believe that resources should be better spent on challenging disinformation surrounding the vaccine and highlighting the positives, rather than making it mandatory, therefore enabling a well-informed personal choice.”

The vaccine has already had a significant impact on reducing hospitalisations and deaths, with more than 10,000 lives saved between December and March, but it is considered vital to continue to protect those who are most vulnerable to the virus as restrictions begin to ease.

Colin Cox, director of public health for Cumbria said: “I have heard of one hospital trust that tried to make Covid vaccinations mandatory and I believe they quickly changed that.

“There are substantial challenges with doing that in part because there are some who can’t have the vaccine for various reason such as their own health.

“I have always been sceptical of mandatory vaccination.”