Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Surveillance Program

From January 1, 2021- August 3, 2021, there were 16,906 long-term care resident COVID-19 cases, and 12,544 long-term care staff cases; deaths numbered 2,222 resident deaths and 13 staff member deaths, with 408 facilities impacted (https://covidtracking.com/data/state/kentucky/long-term-care#- 84.87032991776465,36.677213442333795,4.626992127286515). The Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Surveillance Program (KOSHS) is proposing to utilize the Vaccine Task Force (VTF) supplement to identify vaccination rates and hesitancy among employees who care for the most vulnerable population for COVID 19...Long Term Care residents. In recent discussions with the Kentucky Department of Public Health, it was suggested that the traditional methods of improving vaccination rates are not working in the long-term care facility employee group. This goal of this proposal is to adopt a mixed-methods approach to understand the hesitancy among this population and to develop appropriate strategies and materials to assist in increasing vaccination rates.