The state will delay enforcement of a requirement that health care workers receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot by Monday, as hundreds of thousands of them remain without the additional shot.
Only 75% of health care workers “have either received or are willing to receive a booster,” according to data released by the state Department of Health on Friday.
“The reality is that not enough healthcare workers will be boosted by next week’s requirement in order to avoid substantial staffing issues in our already overstressed healthcare system,” health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement.
The state will make it easier for health care employees to receive boosters, including by offering more shots directly in health care settings, and then “reassess in three months whether additional steps need to be taken to increase booster rates among the healthcare work force,” a health department statement said.
The requirement that all health care workers receive two vaccine shots — or one of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — remains in effect. Thousands of health care workers were fired for not complying with that mandate, which went into effect Sept. 27 for hospitals and nursing homes, and Oct. 7 for hospices, adult-care centers and other facilities.
Booster-shot rates vary greatly depending on the type of job and where the employee works, state data shows. Only 51% of nursing home employees were classified as having received a booster or as “willing and waiting booster,” compared with 95% of hospice workers and 84% of hospital and home-care employees.
“The vaccine and booster are critical tools to keep both healthcare workers and their patients safe, and we continue to urge everyone to get vaccinated and receive a booster dose when eligible,” Bassett said.
Although the highly contagious omicron variant increased the number of — and likelihood of — breakthrough cases of vaccinated people becoming infected with the coronavirus, an adult with a booster shot in January was 3.2 times less likely to test positive for COVID-19 than an unvaccinated person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A “fully vaccinated” person without a booster shot was 2.6 times less likely to test positive.
An adult with a booster in December was 41 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than an unvaccinated person, according to the CDC. A fully vaccinated adult was 14 times less likely to die.
Booster vaccination rates have lagged for the general public as well. Just over 42% of fully vaccinated Long Islanders, and 43% of Americans who are fully vaccinated, have received a booster shot, according to the CDC.
Courts have upheld vaccination requirements imposed statewide and in New York City. Health care employees sued to block the state mandate, saying its lack of an exemption for religious objections was unconstitutional, but the U.S. Supreme Court in December rejected the challenge.
