Jamestown  (ACC)     The Anne Carlsen Center announces that it will be implementing mandatory employee vaccinations starting in September with the expectation that all staff are fully immunized by November 15, 2021. The announcement says, the Anne Carlsen Center action is necessary to protect the individuals and families they serve as well as the nearly 600 staff providing those services statewide.

Anne Carlsen’s medical director, Dr. Myra Quanrud says,  “The American Academy of Pediatrics noted that more than 180,000 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in U.S. children the week ending August 19, 2021. Of the total number of cases in the U.S., 22.4% were in children.  Our staff need to be vaccinated so that COVID-19 isn’t brought in to our vulnerable children, many of whom cannot be vaccinated and are medically complex.”

Anne Carlson Center, CEO, Tim Esissinger  sasy,  evidence shows that the delta variant of COVID-19 is more contagious and dangerous to younger people and that doing its part to limit additional spread will help ensure that new variants don’t develop that could be even worse.

He said in an announcement with staff, “I have imagined the scenario of being seated across from the table from a family receiving services from us who had lost their child to COVID, or a spouse or significant other because of the loss of a staff (member). If I was to be asked if Anne Carlsen had done everything possible to have prevented this from happening, I want to be able to say yes to that question.”

Anne Carlsen Center’s mandate affects all programs across North Dakota including its staff members in Jamestown, Fargo, Grand Forks, Devils Lake, Bottineau, Minot, Bismarck and those based in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Anne Carlsen Center noted that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

The delta variant is more contagious. The Delta variant is highly contagious, more than two times as contagious as previous variants.

Some data suggest the delta variant might cause more severe illness than previous variants in unvaccinated people. In two different studies from Canada and Scotland, patients infected with the delta variant were more likely to be hospitalized than patients infected with alpha or the original virus that causes COVID-19. Even so, most of the hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 are in unvaccinated people.

Unvaccinated people remain the greatest concern. The greatest risk of transmission is among unvaccinated people who are much more likely to get infected and therefore transmit the virus. Fully vaccinated people get COVID-19 (known as breakthrough infections) less often than unvaccinated people. People infected with the delta variant, including fully vaccinated people with symptomatic breakthrough infections, can transmit the virus to others. CDC is continuing to assess data on whether fully vaccinated people with asymptomatic breakthrough infections can transmit the virus.

Fully vaccinated people with delta variant breakthrough infections can spread the virus to others. However, vaccinated people appear to spread the virus for a shorter time. For prior variants, lower amounts of viral genetic material were found in samples taken from fully vaccinated people who had breakthrough infections than from unvaccinated people with COVID-19. For people infected with the delta variant, similar amounts of viral genetic material have been found among both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. However, like prior variants, the amount of viral genetic material may go down faster in fully vaccinated people when compared to unvaccinated people. This means fully vaccinated people will likely spread the virus for less time than unvaccinated people.

 

People infected with the delta variant, including fully vaccinated people with symptomatic breakthrough infections, can transmit the virus to others. CDC is continuing to assess data on whether fully vaccinated people with asymptomatic breakthrough infections can transmit the virus.