New York is considering a booster shot mandate for health care workers, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday, as the state fights a surge of Covid-19 cases driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant that has now been detected in Erie County.
New York's existing vaccination mandate for health care workers required employees in hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities to get their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Sept. 27, unless they had a medical exemption.
UB researchers said they were not able to pinpoint exactly when the variant arrived in Western New York, but it has likely been circulating in the community for at least a couple weeks.
"People who are just vaccinated this fall in order to comply with this, they're not eligible for booster shots yet," Hochul said during a Covid-19 briefing at Erie County Medical Center. "People vaccinated six months or longer ago are eligible. So there's that dynamic, but we'll be giving out regulations on this very shortly."
Hochul's comments came the same day California announced that health care workers in the state would be mandated to get booster shots by Feb. 1. California is the second state to do so, with New Mexico requiring eligible health care workers to get a booster by Jan. 17.
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Hochul lauded New York's health care organizations for complying with the vaccination mandate to this point. While the vast majority opted to get vaccinated, thousands of health care workers across New York – and hundreds in Western New York – opted to lose their jobs rather than get a shot, worsening a staffing crunch.
While the number of workers who lost or are losing their jobs is a small percentage of total workers, every little bit hurts amid a staffing shortage that means hospitals can't operate as many beds – especially during yet another wave of Covid-19 hospitalizations.
Dr. Brian Murray, ECMC's chief medical officer, said the organization's existing employees have already been through the previous mandate, so he doesn't anticipate a booster shot requirement will cause more staff to leave. To date, ECMC has terminated 106 employees over the state's vaccine mandate, or about 3% of its workforce.
"I don't think that a mandate for a booster will necessarily have that big an impact at this stage," Murray said. "Not everybody would have to get it right away because it depends when you were originally vaccinated. If you just got vaccinated just before this mandate, it's five or six months, probably before you will need a booster dose."
As of Wednesday, Murray said about 40% of ECMC's staff has gotten a booster shot, a percentage he anticipates will grow in the weeks ahead.
The governor's office announced 21,027 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, a one-day record in New York State.
"There is discussion at the state level and across all the health systems as to whether or not the booster should be mandated," said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Long Island-based Northwell Health, the state's largest health care provider. "We've not done that. But we're strongly encouraging all of our employees to get the booster.”
During her stop to ECMC, which followed up a similar visit Monday to Wyoming County Community Health System, Hochul was optimistic about Western New York's recent Covid-19 numbers even as other parts of the state deal with a surge.
She touted recent measures to alleviate hospital capacity pressures, including the deployment of Northwell Health workers to Buffalo and Rochester. But even amid the progress locally, Omicron threatens to make matters worse.
Optimistic WNY numbers
Just a couple weeks ago, on Dec. 5, Erie County hit a high of 72.2 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, according to state Health Department data.
Early this week, that figure had fallen to 55.3 cases per 100,000 people, Hochul said.
Meanwhile, cases downstate have skyrocketed, hitting 151 cases per 100,000 in New York City. Statewide, the figure was 115.69 cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday.
"We've had a dramatic decline in cases here in Western New York," Hochul said.
She credited Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz for late last month reinstituting an order that patrons and public-facing workers wear face masks at indoor public places, as well as other measures taken at the state level.
But that doesn't mean Western New York can relax. She continued to urge vaccinations, booster shots and mask wearing, especially over the holidays.
"And to all the families who want to be reunited, there is no reason not to – just be smart," Hochul said. "Vaccines, boosters, masks, and when you're thinking about who's at your dinner table, think of the most vulnerable person, and can you live with the guilt if something you did made them sick? So let's be smart about it."
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced that counties would be given the leeway to enact a test-to-stay program that would enable children who have been exposed to Covid-19 at school to avoid quarantining, expanding what began as a pilot program in Erie County to the entire state.
Help from downstate
To cope with the rise in Covid-19 cases during the fall, local hospitals have been using workers from other parts of the state.
Registered nurse Roody Zamor had just started with Northwell Health after a stint as a travel nurse. Her first role with Northwell: a volunteer assignment seven hours away at the capacity-strained Erie County Medical Center.
"My experience as a travel nurse did motivate me to want to come and help my neighbors," she said Wednesday. "I went to a few cities throughout the pandemic, so I thought it would be great to help somewhere close to home."
Zamor was one of 16 clinical professionals from Northwell who were deployed Dec. 11 to ECMC and the University of Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital to help alleviate pressure at hospitals seeing a surge of Covid-19 hospitalizations.
Those workers' two-week deployment ended Wednesday, allowing them to travel home in time for the holidays. During her time at ECMC, Zamor said she saw Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients, the latter a reminder of the everyday health issues that continue to keep emergency departments busy on top of higher Covid-19 hospitalizations.
Karen Ziemianski, ECMC's senior vice president of nursing, said the Northwell workers relieved some of the stress on ECMC's existing staff .
"I think the biggest challenge is to have enough hands and feet to meet all of our patients' needs," she said. "The Covid patients are quite acute and need a lot of care, and many other patients have delayed care and they need a lot of extra care. So that's our largest challenge."
Omicron fears
With the Omicron variant now detected in Erie County – something University at Buffalo scientists and county officials reported Wednesday – the region's hospitals are closely watching what happens next.
Among the concerns: higher absenteeism among staff members.
"Although we were seeing some breakthrough infections among staff, they were relatively mild and asymptomatic," Murray said. "Omicron changes that, because infections are going to be more frequent, including breakthrough infections. That means loss of staff actually. When our staff test positive, they're not available to us for a period of up to 10 days."
That has the potential to worsen staffing that is already stretched thin.
Murray said ECMC appreciates the help from the state, including the recent deployment of Northwell workers, but staffing at the Buffalo hospital is still challenged.
As of Monday, state data shows all 321 staffed acute care beds at ECMC were occupied, and 39 of 48 staffed ICU beds there were full.
"We have more beds available than we have nurses and other staff to staff those beds," Murray said. "So that's the challenge."
A surge of cases in the next couple weeks, and the arrival of Omicron, threatens to make everything worse.
"Frankly, our staff have done heroic work," Murray said. "But they've been doing this for over 18 months, and it's been relentless. Particularly this year, there have been very few breaks, and that's really beginning to affect people."
