New York’s largest healthcare provider, the Northwell Health has fired 1,400 employees who have not agreed to get vaccinated despite a state-wide vaccine mandate. According to New York’s vaccine mandate, all healthcare staff should receive at least one shot of any approved COVID-19 vaccine.
Nearly 87 percent of the healthcare staff and hospital employees were fully vaccinated as of September 29, the state reported. The vaccination rate of healthcare employees were 84 percent a week before, which indicated that the vaccine mandate had helped to get the employees vaccinated in a much faster pace.
The company’s goal was not to get people terminated, but to get the employees vaccinated, a spokesperson for the Northwell Health told New York Times. Some of the state and health officials have commented that the vaccine mandate could affect the health care industry adversely, since the healthcare sector will experience a shortage in workers and other medical facilities.
The 1,400 staff terminated by the company make up about 2% of Northwell Health’s workforce. Northwell owns 23 hospitals and another 830 outpatient facilities with a total workforce of 77,000 employees across the country.
The employees were fired the next day after the vaccine mandate came into force. The company’s spokesperson told the local media that some of the staff who were fired had returned to their posts after getting vaccinated immediately.
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