Thousands of nurses and other medical professionals across New York could lose their jobs next week when a state mandate requiring them to be vaccinated for coronavirus is scheduled to be enforced. If that happens, it would compound a staffing crisis already afflicting many hospitals and long-term care facilities — including group homes for disabled individuals, where some nurses are being forced to work 24-hour shifts.
The state Department of Health's latest estimates indicate that about 81 percent of hospital employees have been fully vaccinated, but many others are declining or reluctant to be vaccinated — putting them on a collision course with the mandate set to take effect on Sept. 27, when those workers will be required to have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination shot.
