Bill de Blasio mandates COVID-19 vaccines for all hospital workers Leave a comment

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has mandated weekly COVID-19 tests for unvaccinated employees of the city’s public hospital and health clinic systems.  

The order, which will take effect in August 2, was announced at a press conference Wednesday and will apply to the some 30,000 workers across 11 public hospitals. 

It comes as the Big Apple sees a surge in new coronavirus infections amid the spread of the contagious ‘Delta’ variant. 

‘I don’t have a doubt in my mind this is going to move people [hospital workers] towards vaccination,’ de Blasio stated.   

‘If we don’t see vaccination numbers go up fast enough, if we don’t see progress against the variant, we are going to consider a range of options,’ he said, adding that he hoped private hospitals would take similar steps.

According to the New York Post.  Just over 60% of hospital staff in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island have received a vaccine through July. That means almost 40% have either refused or have not received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the state Health Department.

That compares to 64 percent of adults in New York City adults who are fully vaccinated, and 70 percent who have received at least one dose.

Bill de Blasio (center) and his wife Chirlane McCray (center-left) join hundreds of police, fire, hospital, and other first responders in a ticker-tape parade in New York on July 7th

The numbers are slightly better for hospital staff in Queens, where the number vaccinated rises to 67 percent  while in Manhattan 76 percent of workers are vaccinated, the Post reports. 

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According to a recent report a Yale University study conducted with the city’s Health Department, COVID vaccinations prevented 8,300 deaths and 44,000 hospitalizations in New York City during the first six months of 2021.

The study, released last week, shows vaccines stopped a projected 250,000 new coronavirus infections, with just 1.1 percent of all new cases originating from fully vaccinated New Yorkers.

In addition, New Jersey says vaccines have been more than 99-percent effective against the virus throughout the area, according to an analysis released Monday. 

Of the the 4.4 million people vaccinated in New Jersey as of June 28, the Health Department’s analysis showed only 3,474 tested positive for COVID.  

Of those individuals, 84 required hospitalization and 31 died.     

As the spread of the now prominent Delta variant surges and vaccinations continue to slow, istanabet17 many believe indoor mask mandates should return. 

However, De Blasio said he’s not imposing a mask mandate anytime soon because of concerns it would prevent New Yorkers from getting vaccinated. 

Both deaths and infections have spiked across the country as fears mount that the new variant could halt progress against the virus 

‘I fear this. I don’t want to see people say, ‘Oh, we’re wearing masks so we don’t need to deal with vaccination,” de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily press briefing. 

‘We have the solution to the thing that is killing so many people and is now threatening once again our ability for people to make a living. Why is this hard? Just go get vaccinated,’ he urged.  

On Sunday, Los Angeles County reinstated its indoor mask mandate as the Delta variant threatens to halt progress against the coronavirus across the country.  

The spread of the highly contagious strain, which originated in India, has already pushed new infections up to 26,306 nationwide, an increase of 69.3 percent on a seven-day moving average compared to one week earlier.

Nearly every state witnessed a rise in infections in the last week and CDC data shows the Delta variant is responsible for about 60 percent of these cases.

The reinstatement of indoor mask wearing in LA came after the county saw a 700% increase in its positivity rate over the past month, according to health officials, with the unvaccinated accounting for all hospitalizations.

The mandate is a departure from CDC guidelines that now say the vaccinated can remain without a mask indoors.