New York: As part of a national response to threats caused by more contagious Delta Coronavirus variants, New York City will require Covid-19 vaccination or weekly tests for workers in the hospital and clinics managed by the city.
The new policy will take effect on August 2, said Mayor Bill De Blasio at a press conference on Wednesday.
The city will suspend without paying any employee who refuses to be vaccinated or tested.
“Because of the Delta variant, the more choices between infections or vaccinations, and it can mean the difference between life and death,” Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, told the same briefing.
About 60% of more than 42,000 employees of the New York City General Hospital System were vaccinated, Mitch Katz, who headed the largest public health care system in the country, said on Wednesday.
Throughout New York City, 70% of hospital staff have received vaccine doses, state data shows.
The percentage of New York General Hospital workers who are fully vaccinated also reduced the percentage of the city’s adult population, which stands at 65%, city health data shows.
The requirements mark city halls have first mandated vaccination or negative tests for public sector workers.
In California, San Francisco took steps that more determined last month when announcing that all city workers in the “high risk” settings such as reservoirs and homeless prisons must be vaccinated on September 15.
De Blasio said New York might take further steps if the threat caused by the Delta variant grew.
He did not rule out the extension of vaccination or testing requirements for all city workers in the future.
The highly contagious Delta variant from India and has now become a dominant strain throughout the world has brought chaos among nation populations that are not vaccinated in recent weeks.
US centers for controlling disease and Rochelle prevention director Walensky said last week that 97% of people entered the hospital in the United States with Covid-19 were not vaccinated.
The inclusion of new dozens of hospitals and health systems throughout the United States has published vaccination requirements for their staff.
Last month, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit brought by a group of workers at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas for his needs that they were vaccinated against Covid-19.
The large medical system in New Jersey has fired half a dozen employees because they were not vaccinated against Covid-19, according to media reports published on Tuesday.
Some countries with low vaccination rates such as Utah, Arkansas and Louisiana once again face an outbreak, and some hospitals warn them overwhelmed by the entry of Covid-19 patients.
“We have a worrying surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the Houston area,” said Patti Muck, Texas spokesman ‘Houston Methodist, said in the email earlier this week.
“Inpatient increase adds stress to many of our hospitals that are close to capacity.” The Coronavirus case almost tripled over the past month and hospitalization rose by almost 40%, according to Reuters data analysis.
Death, which can be left behind other indicators, down 14% over the same period of time.