Expanded Baker mandate would require vaccines for home care workers

Courtesy Gov. Charlie Baker

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By State House News Service

All staff in Massachusetts rest homes, assisted living residences and hospice programs, as well as home care workers who provide in-home direct care, would need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the next two months under an expanded mandate the Baker administration announced Wednesday.

The new policy, which is subject to approval from the state Public Health Council, would apply both to workers directly employed by facilities and to contractors who regularly enter facilities in an effort to "protect older adults against COVID-19," the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services said.

Affected workers must get vaccinated by Oct. 31 unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption. Officials said the proposed regulations would apply to 62 freestanding rest homes, 85 hospice programs and 268 assisted living residences.

Up to 100,000 home care workers will also fall under the Baker administration's expanded mandate. The new requirement applies to those providing in-home, direct care employed by a state-contracted or state-subcontracted agency as well as to independent, non-agency home care workers contracted with the state such as personal care attendants in the MassHealth program.

The new mandate builds on a public health order Department of Public Health Acting Commissioner Margret Cooke issued last month requiring long-term care workers in skilled nursing facilities and soldiers' homes to get fully vaccinated by Oct. 10.

CORRECTION: The headline in a previous version of this story incorrectly said the expanded vaccine mandate applied to face masks.