A council official has warned being vaccinated “does not mean we are  totally immune to Covid” after it emerged dozens of care home staff tested positive in the last month.

Conwy Council officer Mark Bowler revealed the figure during a presentation to members of Conwy county council’s social care and health scrutiny committee on Wednesday.

His report looked at the effects of coronavirus on the authority’s social care provision since lockdown began.

He revealed that the peak of the crisis had occurred in early February when more than 30 care homes had been designated “red”, meaning there was at least one confirmed case of Covid on the premises.

During the same month, 90 care home staff had tested positive for the coronavirus in Conwy county alone.

Mr Bowler said positive results “rose substantially in January” where there were “a large number of residents” infected “in a small number of homes”.

However rather than residents bearing the brunt of infections, staff were found to be most likely to catch the virus.

He added: “In general we have managed to see fewer residents catching Covid than in that first stage of the pandemic.

“Conwy is not out of this. Hopefully we are coming out of our peak (of infections) but only just.

“The numbers in our care sector are still high. It’s still very, very busy and it’s important we still get infection control right.

“Having the vaccine does not mean we are totally immune from Covid.

“We are not over it on Conwy yet and we still have some real outbreaks ongoing.”

Cllr Andrew Hinchliff (Bryn ward) asked whether the council knew what the take-up of the vaccine was among care staff, as he claimed he’d heard of staff being sacked in London for refusing it.

Claire Lister, the county’s head of integrated and adults services, said: “We are not able to keep data on individuals who refuse the vaccine for data protection reasons.

“We’ve had a number of discussions about it and that was under the advice of HR.

“We certainly wouldn’t be taking disciplinary action against anyone who hadn’t – we would be taking a much more encouraging approach.”

Mr Bowler’s report revealed more than half of the county’s 58 care homes had at least one confirmed case of Covid during week commencing January 24.

More than 50 care home residents contracted Covid-19 between January 24 and February 20 in what he described as “the peak of infections”.

Mr Bowler said: “What we have found during the second peak of infections is where it has caught it’s spread very, very quickly throughout the home.”

Between April 5 and July 5 last year there were 126 infections in the county’s care homes and 35 deaths due to coronavirus.

In the second wave five residents had died since December 20 last year.

Up to two weeks ago 1,165 care home residents had been vaccinated against the infection – representing 95 per cent of the target group.

Mr Bowler praised the work of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in rolling out the vaccine.

The department had also been distributing PPE from Conwy county council’s unit on Mochdre Commerce Park, which has not been needed as a temporary morgue.

So far 3.5m boxes of gloves, 1.6m boxes of masks and 1.5m rolls of plastic aprons had been distributed from the makeshift depot.

Care homes in the county have also been handed £500,000 to cover additional costs associated with the pandemic and had also supported day centre services even though they didn’t qualify for the Welsh Government support.

More than 3,000 care staff in the county had received a £500 Welsh Government special payment in recognition of their work.