New York State health officials announced on Wednesday that they are in the process of repealing the mandate for healthcare workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
This development comes as pandemic-era rules are broadly expiring, and after years of legal challenges that led to healthcare workers losing their jobs over vaccine refusal.
The Department of Health declared that the vaccine mandate, first instituted by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in August 2021 and later adopted as a formal regulation, had served as a crucial public health measure during the health crisis.
While the state-wide mandate is set to end, individual healthcare facilities maintain the discretion to implement their own internal COVID-19 vaccination policies.
This move also occurs amid increasing concerns over a looming healthcare worker shortage in various parts of the state, as an expiring rule that enabled the recruitment of out-of-state health care professionals raises further challenges.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to [email protected]