NY Hospital Pauses Baby Deliveries As Maternity Workers Quit Over Vaccine Mandate

A hospital in New York is “pausing” child deliveries due to several employee resignations in the maternity unit over the state’s coronavirus vaccine mandate that requires at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine among employees of all New York hospitals and long-term care facilities by Sept. 27.

At a recent media briefing, chief executive of the Lewis County Health System, Gerald Cayer, said the Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville will not be able “to safely staff the service after September 24,” CNN reported. “The number of resignations received leaves us no choice but to pause delivering babies,” Cayer said.

He noted that 30 hospital employees have resigned, including six workers at the hospital’s maternity unit since the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers was announced last month. Seven others in the hospital are undecided, CBS affiliate WWNY-TV reported.

Of the 30, 21 worked in clinical areas, Cayer said, adding that there were still 165 employees in the Lewis County Health System who have yet to receive at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, that’s 27 percent of the workforce. He further explained that it is unclear when the unvaccinated employees will get their shots.

In mid-August, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the Sept. 27 deadline for state employees working in hospitals and long-term care facilities to get at least one dose of the vaccine.

Cayer said “it is a hard deadline before us,” noting that other hospital units were at risk “based on the number of unvaccinated individuals in those departments.” He asked the state Department of Health to support the hospital’s decision to pause child deliveries instead of completely shutting down the maternity unit.

Cuomo’s announcement prompted 30 other employees in the hospital to get their shots. The other 464 workers, or 73 percent of employees, have received their shots, according to Cayer.

On Sunday, Lewis County reported 12 new confirmed COVID-19 cases after 138 people were tested, data from the state’s coronavirus tracker site revealed. Data from Covid Act Now measured the county’s positivity rate at 13.5 percent.

Furthermore, only 46.2 percent of the county’s total eligible population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, which is below the U.S. average of 63 percent.

New York has so far reported 2,409,029 coronavirus cases and 55,200 deaths, according to worldometer data. Nationally, COVID-19 has infected 41,853,362 people in the United States and claimed 677,988 deaths.