Sienna Senior Living (SIA) staff will be among the first to receive the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine.
19 of the company’s 83 residences are currently in outbreak, making the need for vaccination even more pressing.
Sienna team members will receive the vaccine as part of the first phase focusing on COVID-facing frontline healthcare workers. Each residence has been allocated enough vaccines to cover around 15 per cent of the staff.
Nitin Jain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sienna, said the company’s vaccine task force has been preparing for this moment.
“We are very pleased to be among the first to participate in this historic immunization program. This is a major turning point in this pandemic, and we are well-positioned to support the ongoing roll-out of the vaccine in Ontario and British Columbia to ensure our residents and team members are immunized as quickly as possible,” he added.
Earlier this year, Sienna was rocked by controversy, after military personnel assisting at the residences brought forward allegations of understaffing and neglect. The scandal was quickly followed by a CEO switch-out and a renewed focus on health and safety.
Turning to the company’s key metrics, retirement same property occupancy in November dipped last by 1.4 per cent to 81.3 per cent, compared to October.
The company attributed the dip to “renewed access restrictions at applicable residences amid the second wave of the pandemic." Despite the dip and the pressures on the industry overall, monthly retirement rent collection remains high at 99.5 per cent.
Sienna Senior Living is up 1 per cent and is trading at C$14.20 per share at 11.29am EST.