New York hospital suspends baby deliveries after Covid-19 quits

Cayer said 165 Lewis County health system workers had not received a single dose of the vaccine.

“Our vaccine vaccination rate is now 73% – 464 people in the health system are now vaccinated,” Cayer said. “165 employees are yet to be vaccinated. And it’s unclear what they will do,” Cayer said.

“We have two weeks left for 165 staff to receive the first dose of the vaccine. And at the same time, we need to make contingency plans for the services we think are at risk. We cannot wait until the last minute. We don’t have a lot of time, and it’s a tough deadline ahead of us. “

Cayer said several other departments were at risk “based on the number of unvaccinated people in those departments.”

Contingency plans include reassigning nurses from administrative roles to clinical functions, he said.

Asked what it would take for the maternity ward to continue to function, Cayer said: “Our hope is that as we get closer the number of people vaccinated will increase, fewer people will leave and maybe with a little. luckily some of those who resigned will reconsider. “

Employees who resign or are made redundant due to vaccination will not be entitled to unemployment benefits, he said.

Cayer said hospital staff shortages were a problem before the coronavirus pandemic and he now wanted to focus on recruiting.

“If we can suspend the service and now focus on recruiting vaccinated nurses, we can re-engage in childbirth here in Lewis County,” Cayer said.

Cayer said he supports the mandate of healthcare workers and others.

“The mandate ensures that we will have a healthy workforce and that we are not responsible for transmission inside or outside our facilities,” he said.

“The trend line of Covid-19 positivity over the past two weeks is heading in the wrong direction and putting our community at risk. Lewis County has the highest 7- and 14-day positivity rate of the year. New York State over the past three days, ”he said on Friday.

“Today, this is how the transmission of Covid-19 impacts the healthcare system. The Lewis County healthcare system has five employees in quarantine, five employees in isolation and four hospitalized community members. at LCGH are positive for Covid, and they’re sick enough to be hospitalized. “

The New York State Department of Health issued an order on August 16 requiring the immunization of all healthcare workers, including staff in “nursing homes, adult care and other facilities. group care ”, by September 27.