Vaccination deadline arrives for NY healthcare workers

Vaccination deadline arrives for NY healthcare workers

FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2020, file photo, Michelle Chester, director of employee health services at Northwell Health, prepares the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in Valley Stream, N.Y. Hospitals and nursing homes across the country are preparing for worsening staff shortages as state deadlines arrive for employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. New York health care employees had until the end of the day Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, to get at least one dose. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP, File)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Some hospitals and nursing homes in New York began removing workers Monday for failing to meet a state-mandated deadline to get a COVID-19 vaccine as Gov. Kathy Hochul pleaded with holdouts to get 11th-hour inoculations. It was not clear Monday if a wave of suspensions and terminations of healthcare workers who refused be inoculated would cause dramatic staff shortages. Hochul said workers had until the end of the day Monday to get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as required. Employees who refuse the shots face suspensions and termination. 

Photo: FILE – In this Dec. 21, 2020, file photo, Michelle Chester, director of employee health services at Northwell Health, prepares the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in Valley Stream, N.Y. Hospitals and nursing homes across the country are preparing for worsening staff shortages as state deadlines arrive for employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. New York health care employees had until the end of the day Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, to get at least one dose. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP, File)