Mandatory Covid vaccine: Shropshire care home worker loss revealed

Double vaccination has been compulsory for workers since 11 November

Forty five care home workers have been lost in Shropshire after refusing Covid vaccinations, council figures show.

Anyone working in a Care Quality Commission-registered care home in England must have had two vaccine doses by 11 November.

Shropshire Council revealed that 99% of the county's workforce had however taken up the vaccinations.

It praised workers for helping to avert a potentially disastrous staffing shortage.

The council said homes were "well prepared" for the vacancies left by the staff who had to stop working on the day the legislation came into force, meaning "no services were disrupted as a result", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Preparations are now under way to support the domiciliary care sector, which will see vaccines become mandatory for all workers next spring, along with the NHS.

Unison had warned that the sector faced "collapse" if the plans were not dropped - with the government itself predicting about 40,000 care workers could be lost from the sector when the rules come into force.