West News Wire: New York’s state mandate ordering health care workers to get the COVID vaccine went into effect Monday at midnight.
Some hospital networks including Northwell Health have already fired more than two dozen health care workers. Others will have 30 days to get a COVID vaccine or lose their jobs.
Officials say 16% of the state’s hospital workers, or some 83,000 people, are not fully vaccinated. About 8% haven’t gotten a single dose, putting them at risk of termination.
Steven Corwin, the president and CEO at New York-Presbyterian Hospitals, one of the largest systems in the country, said he believes a mandate is needed to get everyone fully vaccinated.
Before its own vaccination deadline last week, 30% of staff were unvaccinated. But after the deadline, less than 1% refused the shot and resigned.
“So out of 48,000 employees and affiliated physicians, we have less than 220 that have not chosen to get the vaccine,” Corwin told CBS News’ Errol Barnett.
At Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, about 5% of the staff, roughly 400 people, are unvaccinated and on leave.
