Andréa CHILD
France Media Agency
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Since Monday, all caregivers and staff of public and private hospitals in the state, nearly 520,000 people, must be vaccinated to go to work, otherwise their salaries will be suspended and risk being made redundant.
Democratic state governor Kathy Hochul initially put on her big eyes by promising to mobilize the National Guard to replace unvaccinated caregivers, raising fears of a chaotic situation in hospitals. She finally welcomed the fact that no health care establishment has been closed for lack of personnel since Monday, the day the obligation entered into force in this state of 20 million inhabitants, the fourth in the country.
COVID-19 has killed more than 56,000 people in the state – including 34,000 in New York – since March 2020.
Other states must follow, such as California as of Thursday, but caregivers who refuse the vaccine there keep the possibility of working by being tested every week.
Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Andrew Cuomo on August 25, also welcomed the increase in the rate of fully vaccinated caregivers, which had reached 87% on Wednesday. For example, the percentage of nursing home staff who received at least one dose of vaccine rose from 71% on August 24, to 82% on September 20 and 92% on Monday.
For Kathy Hochul, faced with one of her first political tests, this “shows that maintaining the vaccination obligation for health workers is simply the right thing to do”, while the rule has been attacked several times. in court, so far to no avail.
Contrasting situation
In New York City, there were just over 3,000 unvaccinated public health or hospital workers on Wednesday, out of a total of 43,000, up from around 5,000 at the start of the week and some 8,000 the week before, D said.r Mitchell Katz, who heads the city’s health services.
“We have a staff of around 500 nurses available to replace those who have not yet been vaccinated or who have chosen to retire. We haven’t fired anyone yet, ”he said, assuring that those who would receive their first dose when they arrived at work could take their duty normally.
“Our workforce is almost 100% vaccinated,” said the private group Northwell Health, which operates 23 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient care facilities in the state.
The group said that out of 76,000 people, including 18,900 nurses and 4,800 interns, “a few hundred unvaccinated employees were contacted last week to urgently make arrangements to receive an injection.”
“We unfortunately had to get out of the system a few hundred employees” who were still not vaccinated Monday, added Northwell Health without specifying whether they were layoffs.
But the situation is not the same in all hospitals in the state, which extends to the border with Canada.
Thus, the Buffalo hospital, which manages nearly 600 beds in the north of the state, he told AFP to have had to “put on unpaid leave” about 5% of its staff, or 167 employees. out of 3303. The rate even reaches 20% in a long-term care service which depends on the hospital, where a hundred of the 474 employees are still not vaccinated.
The hospital therefore had to deprogram the less urgent interventions and reorganize its opening hours.
The compulsory vaccination of caregivers is a trial balloon for New York City, before that of teachers whose entry into force was postponed to Friday by a court decision.
“Get your first dose by then or don’t come back to work on Monday.” The choice is yours, ”Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter.
Even if the majority of teachers are already vaccinated, unions of teachers and school directors have warned that too brutal application of the measure could disrupt schools.
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Andréa CHILD
France Media Agency
–
Since Monday, all caregivers and staff of public and private hospitals in the state, nearly 520,000 people, must be vaccinated to go to work, otherwise their salaries will be suspended and risk being made redundant.
Democratic state governor Kathy Hochul initially put on her big eyes by promising to mobilize the National Guard to replace unvaccinated caregivers, raising fears of a chaotic situation in hospitals. She finally welcomed the fact that no health care establishment has been closed for lack of personnel since Monday, the day the obligation entered into force in this state of 20 million inhabitants, the fourth in the country.
COVID-19 has killed more than 56,000 people in the state – including 34,000 in New York – since March 2020.
Other states must follow, such as California as of Thursday, but caregivers who refuse the vaccine there keep the possibility of working by being tested every week.
Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Andrew Cuomo on August 25, also welcomed the increase in the rate of fully vaccinated caregivers, which had reached 87% on Wednesday. For example, the percentage of nursing home staff who received at least one dose of vaccine rose from 71% on August 24, to 82% on September 20 and 92% on Monday.
For Kathy Hochul, faced with one of her first political tests, this “shows that maintaining the vaccination obligation for health workers is simply the right thing to do”, while the rule has been attacked several times. in court, so far to no avail.
Contrasting situation
In New York City, there were just over 3,000 unvaccinated public health or hospital workers on Wednesday, out of a total of 43,000, up from around 5,000 at the start of the week and some 8,000 the week before, D said.r Mitchell Katz, who heads the city’s health services.
“We have a staff of around 500 nurses available to replace those who have not yet been vaccinated or who have chosen to retire. We haven’t fired anyone yet, ”he said, assuring that those who would receive their first dose when they arrived at work could take their duty normally.
“Our workforce is almost 100% vaccinated,” said the private group Northwell Health, which operates 23 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient care facilities in the state.
The group said that out of 76,000 people, including 18,900 nurses and 4,800 interns, “a few hundred unvaccinated employees were contacted last week to urgently make arrangements to receive an injection.”
“We unfortunately had to get out of the system a few hundred employees” who were still not vaccinated Monday, added Northwell Health without specifying whether they were layoffs.
But the situation is not the same in all hospitals in the state, which extends to the border with Canada.
Thus, the Buffalo hospital, which manages nearly 600 beds in the north of the state, he told AFP to have had to “put on unpaid leave” about 5% of its staff, or 167 employees. out of 3303. The rate even reaches 20% in a long-term care service which depends on the hospital, where a hundred of the 474 employees are still not vaccinated.
The hospital therefore had to deprogram the less urgent interventions and reorganize its opening hours.
The compulsory vaccination of caregivers is a trial balloon for New York City, before that of teachers whose entry into force was postponed to Friday by a court decision.
“Get your first dose by then or don’t come back to work on Monday.” The choice is yours, ”Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter.
Even if the majority of teachers are already vaccinated, unions of teachers and school directors have warned that too brutal application of the measure could disrupt schools.
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