MEMO: Symptoms Post-Vaccination for Health Care Workers

TO:  Health Care Workers

FROM: Niagara Region Public Health

REFERENCE: Symptoms Post-Vaccination for Health Care Workers    

DATE:  March 1, 2021

The Ministry of Health recently released a document entitled COVID-19 Guidance for Health Care Settings: Managing Health Care Workers with Symptoms within 48 Hours of Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine.

Niagara Region Public Health generally supports this document’s guidance around persons being able to return to work with symptoms common after vaccination, unless a staff member has been identified as a close contact, is part of an outbreak or there are other reasons to suspect they may have COVID-19. In these cases, we recommend the staff member isolate and get tested to rule out COVID-19 prior to returning to work.

If a staff member develops any of the following new and mild symptoms within 48 hours of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, they may continue to work:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Muscle Ache
• Joint pain

Please emphasize that if there are any other symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g. cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell), even if they are mild, a staff member must NOT work.

If the staff member has a fever or symptoms persist longer than 48 hours, the staff member must immediately go into isolation.

These guidelines apply only to staff.

Thank you so much for everything you have been and continue doing to help people in Niagara stay healthy.