A hospital in the northeastern part of New York will stop giving birth later this month after 30 employees left the service in protest of the facility’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Lewis County Health System CEO Gerald Cayer announced Friday at a news conference that Lewis County General Hospital “will not be able to personally care” for her maternity department as of Sept. 25.
“The number of waivers received leaves us with no choice but to stop giving birth to the baby at Lewis County General Hospital,” Cayer said.
The resignations came after the hospital revised two weeks ago the emergency regulations that required vaccines for employees, eliminating the option of a religious exemption. However, medical exemptions are allowed.
The policy change followed an announcement by the then governor of New York. Andrew Cuomo
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Of the 30 employees who resigned from Lewis County General Hospital, 21 work in clinical areas, according to Cayer.
He said 464 people in the Lewis County health system are vaccinated, a 73% vaccination rate for their employees.
However, there are still 165 people who are not vaccinated and have not yet indicated what their plans are, as the September 27 deadline to receive the first shot is near.
Three employees have been approved for medical exemptions and 12 have said they plan to file a medical exemption, Cayer said, adding that the hospital is still pending to see this documentation.
Cayer warned that other clinical departments at the hospital are at risk because of the number of unvaccinated people working in those departments.
“We, as employees, have an obligation not to put at risk those we care for or our co-workers,” he added.
The CEO said all hospital employees, including members of the medical and nursing staff, hired staff, volunteers and students, are required to fulfill the mandate.
Since the warrant was announced, an additional 30 hospital employees have been vaccinated, according to Cayer.
The coronavirus is already affecting hospital employees. According to Cayer, five people are in quarantine, another five are isolated and four members of the community are hospitalized with the virus.
The controversy at New York Hospital comes amid a nationwide rise in COVID-19 cases, driven largely by the highly contagious delta variant, which it is now the dominant strain in the US