|
 New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference the city's
hospitals were not yet seeing a major impact from the mandate,
adding he worried about other areas of the state where vaccination
rates are lower.
A spokeswoman for Catholic Health, one of the largest healthcare
providers in Western New York, said it had reached full compliance,
counting staff members who had been vaccinated, those with
exemptions and some who had been suspended without pay.
The spokeswoman, JoAnne Cavanaugh, refused to say how many workers
had been suspended or granted exemptions due to medical or religious
reasons.
Catholic Health said it was forced to postpone "a small number" of
elective surgeries.
Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo suspended elective inpatient
surgeries and had stopped accepting intensive-care patients from
other hospitals as it prepares to fire hundreds of unvaccinated
employees, a spokesman Peter Cutler said.
Cutler said the decision to curtail some operations would
inconvenience patients and hurt hospital finances. Elective
inpatient surgeries bring in about $1 million per week, he said.
"We had to make a decision as to where we could temporarily make
some changes so that we could ensure other areas of services are as
little affected as possible," Cutler said. "Financially, it's a big
deal."
The inoculation push comes as President Joe Biden and other state
and federal political leaders ratchet up pressure on unvaccinated
Americans, some of whom object to mandates on religious or health
grounds.
[to top of second column] |
 New York's state health
department issued an order last month mandating
that all healthcare workers receive at least
their first COVID-19 shot by Sept. 27,
triggering a rush by hospitals to get their
employees inoculated.
Of the 43,000 employees at the New York City's
11 public hospitals, about 5,000 were not
vaccinated, Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of NYC
Health + Hospitals, said at the news conference
with de Blasio.
Katz said 95% of nurses were vaccinated and all
the group's facilities were "open and fully
functional" on Monday.
On Saturday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said
she was considering employing the National Guard
and out-of-state medical workers to fill
staffing shortages, with 16% of the state's
450,000 hospital staff not fully vaccinated.
Healthcare workers who are fired for refusing to
get vaccinated will not be eligible for
unemployment insurance unless they are able to
provide a valid doctor-approved request for
medical accommodation, Hochul's office said.
A federal judge in Albany temporarily ordered
New York state officials to allow religious
exemptions for the state-imposed vaccine mandate
on healthcare workers.
 Separately, a federal appeals court on Monday
ruled that New York City can order all teachers
and staff to get the vaccine, reversing a
previous decision that had put the mandate on
hold for educators.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton,
Connecticut and Maria Caspani in New York;
Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by
Bill Berkrot, Dan Grebler and David Gregorio)
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