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Nearly a third of New York City hospital workers still have not received COVID-19 vaccines, according to city data.
Figures from the state’s health department show that only 70% have completed their vaccine series since the injections rolled out in December 2020.
Of the five boroughs, Manhattan has the highest percentage of workers vaccinated with 76% having received their vaccines.
Queens ranked second with more than two-thirds of health workers, or 67%, being vaccinated.
However, nearly 40% of hospital staff in the other three districts have either refused the COVID-19 vaccine or have not yet received it.
As of July 14, 61% of workers have been vaccinated in the Bronx, 62% in Brooklyn (Kings County) and 64% in Staten Island (Richmond County).
Currently in New York City, at least 69% of active COVID cases are of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Only 70 percent of New York City hospital workers are vaccinated, behind the statewide rate of 74 percent
Manhattan has the highest vaccination rate at 76% among hospital workers. The Bronx has the lowest rate at just 61%.
Health workers were among the first people to have the vaccine in the state in December 2020.
Only one hospital in the state, NYPresbyterian-Health, has required all employees to be vaccinated, giving them until September 1.
According to state data, nearly 74% of adults in New York state and 70% of adults in the city have received at least one injection.
This means the state’s healthcare workers are above the city average, but fall behind the rest of the state.
Statewide, 74 percent of healthcare workers are vaccinated.
“It is sad that so many health care workers are not getting vaccinated,” Richard Gottfried, chairman of the health committee and Manhattan representative to the state assembly, told the New York Post.
“It is important to protect yourself, to protect your patients and to make the health care system work. They should set an example for everyone.
Hospital workers are at increased risk of catching and transmitting COVID-19 due to their interactions with sick patients in hospitals.
Even when someone themselves is not working with COVID patients, they can still catch the virus from other people around the hospital.
For this reason, it is essential that health workers get vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and that is why they have been given a high priority in vaccine deployment.
An increase in the number of cases among healthcare workers can also reduce the ability of hospitals to treat patients, thereby exacerbating potential problems.
For this reason, several hospital systems across the country have instituted vaccination mandates, requiring all employees to be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs.
NY-Presbyterian made the decision to set a deadline of September 1 in June.
“The stakes in this case are high, and the evidence is clear that getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the most important and responsible action we can take as members of the NYP team for safety and the well-being of our patients and visitors, our communities, and ourselves, ”wrote the hospital management in a memo to staff obtained by Gothamist.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the only one of 11 hospitals in the city to have a vaccination mandate, giving employees until September 1 to get vaccinated
The hospital, like many others, already requires its employees to be vaccinated against influenza, measles, rubella and chickenpox.
Other hospital systems across the country have implemented similar mandates, but not without reaction.
In Houston, the Houston Methodist Hospital has been sued by more than 100 employees after setting a deadline in early June for employees to get vaccinated.
The lawsuit was dismissed because the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission had previously ruled that employers were allowed to set these types of mandates.
1199SEIU, the largest healthcare union in the country with more than 450,000 members, has pledged to oppose such measures.
“We do not agree with a mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine,” George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU, said in a statement earlier this month.
“A strict approach will not work and will only create greater frustration for the health heroes who have battled this pandemic every day for the past 15 months.
“We agree that vaccination is an important tool in helping us move forward, but making vaccination mandatory is not and never will be the answer.”
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