Unvaccinated Health Care Workers Face Termination With Mandate
New York State’s vaccine mandate for all health care workers is now in effect, with the state bracing for possible staffing shortages.
In a final plea to convince vaccine holdouts to get the jab, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday it is time for the state to put the pandemic behind it and that needs to be accomplished first by the people who work in direct contact with patients in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities.
“My job, number one in this state, is to keep people safe,” Hochul said in a Monday morning briefing. “Clear, simple, there’s no way to cloud that, there’s no gray area. I need to keep people in the state safe and we’ll be nation-leading with our mandate which strikes at midnight tonight when everyone is expected in a hospital in the state of New York or a health care facility to have been vaccinated.”
Unvaccinated health care workers will be terminated from their jobs if they fail to get the shot.
In the event of potential shortages, Hochul said the state would ask retired health care workers to return to work, entice out-of-state workers to come to New York and deploy medically trained members of the state’s National Guard.
It is not certain exactly what percentage of health care workers are vaccinated. Hochul said that she will be receiving a report in the near future to get a full grasp on how many will lose their jobs. Some downstate health care organizations are reporting compliance rates of 98 to 99 percent, she said.
“We know this has been tough,” Hochul said. “We know this has been a hard decision, but we really do hope that you’ll come around to that decision to help us make sure that we can do everything we can in our power.”
The mandate comes at a time when the state has reached the 75 percent vaccination threshold for adults 18 years old and up. In Westchester County, that number is 88.5 percent and 83 percent in Putnam County.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer said that during the past week there were about 11,000 first-time recipients of the vaccine, a high number considering the rate had stalled for much of the summer.
But with the Delta variant having pushed cases higher through much of the summer, there continues to be a relatively significant uptick in people who are getting inoculated.
“As much as there’s vaccine hesitancy and vaccine resistance from various areas, we are still getting people vaccinated at this point, and we’re encouraged by that number,” Latimer said.
Countywide, there have been 729,342 people 18 years old and up in Westchester who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, he said.
Latimer was also encouraged by the continued reduction in active COVID-19 cases in the county. The mid-August high of nearly 2,800 cases has fallen to 2,137 as of Sunday.
Hospitalizations have also dropped to 63 from an August high of 110. During the past week there were two deaths, compared to a combined 13 fatalities over the previous two weeks.
The downstate region continues to have a comparatively low infection rate. On Sunday, the seven-county Mid Hudson region, which includes Westchester and Putnam, saw a 3.1 percent rate. The seven-day average stood at 2.8 percent.
However, some of the upstate regions’ rates have raised some eyebrows. On Sunday, the Southern Tier, the area that borders Pennsylvania, had a 9.1 percent infection rate, while Central New York, the Mohawk Valley and the North Country were at more than 7 percent each.
New York City had the lowest infection rate at 1.7 percent.
Westchester County had a daily rate Sunday of 1.8 percent, and 1.9 percent on the seven-day average. Putnam County was at 2.7 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
