New York to Mandate Booster Shot for All Healthcare Workers

All healthcare workers in New York will be required to receive the coronavirus booster vaccine as omicron cases continue to surge across the United States, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Friday.

“Healthcare workers will be asked to do this with no exemptions other than a medical exemption and no test-out options,” Hochul stated during a press conference. “We’ll make sure that we are doing everything we can — all those levers, all those buttons, we can push — and this is why we wanted to make sure to get those healthcare workers boosted as well.”

CNN reports:

Hochul said New York is the first state in the nation to require a booster shot for health care workers and called it an important priority to prevent healthcare workers from getting sick amid breakthrough Omicron cases. Hochul said she discussed the mandate with acting Health Commissioner of New York Dr. Mary Bassett. Bassett will make the recommendation to the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council at a special meeting being held on Jan. 11. Hochul said she “anticipates swift approval” and the mandate will take effect “immediately.”

Hochul’s announcement comes after New York registered 84,202 additional coronavirus cases in the previous day, with 130 new coronavirus fatalities and more than 11,000 hospital admissions.

“We still have hospitalizations increasing,” Hochul acknowledged. “But I always ask, ‘What do these numbers actually mean? Who is being admitted for severe COVID cases and who is being tested while in the hospital for other reasons?’”

“Today it seemed like everyone had COVID. Like, so many. And yes, like before, there were some really short of breath and needing oxygen. But for most, COVID seemed to topple a delicate balance of an underlying illness,” Manhattan emergency room physician Dr. Craig Spencer said.