State’s COVID test order ended
Agency’s decision affects thousands of unvaccinated N.Y. government employees
Thousands of unvaccinated state workers will no longer be required to submit to weekly COVID -19 testing, according to a directive issued late last week by the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations.
In December, the Times Union reported that a little more than 20 percent of state workers had remained unvaccinated and were being subjected to weekly testing. The mandatory testing requirement, which ended Tuesday, was expected to cost the state more than $60 million through the end of the winter.
A spokeswoman for the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations said the directive issued Friday ending the mandatory testing would not impact hundreds of unvaccinated nurses and other medical professionals who were forced off the job last year and have faced disciplinary proceedings after they declined to get vaccinated by the stateimposed Sept. 27 deadline. Many of those were individuals who had received advice from physicians not to get vaccinated due to underlying health conditions, including complicated pregnancies.
The policy also sparked controversy because it was not initially applied to thousands of nurses and other medical personnel who worked in state agencies that care for inmates or disabled and mentally ill individuals — facilities that have been severely understaffed.
The state had informed labor union leaders last year that the tests were expected to cost about $75 apiece, which put the weekly cost for roughly 22,000 unvaccinated state workers at roughly $900,000.
The recent directive from the Governors Office of Employee Relations suspending the testing requirements was disseminated to state human resources managers and said that “until further notice, employees do not need to test weekly pursuant to the state testing program.” The statement added: “Given the wide availability of tests, (human resources) managers should encourage all employees to continue testing through home tests or at testing locations ... . ”
Many of the New York nurses who were forced off the job for not being vaccinated are being recruited by medical facilities in other states that do not have vaccine mandates, according to labor officials familiar with the matter.
The state’s firm stance on vaccine mandates for health care workers grew heated last year when the State University of New York issued incendiary termination letters to nurses and other medical professionals charging them with misconduct, insubordination, dereliction of duties and incompetence after they declined to get vaccinated by the September deadline.
For nurses and others employed by SUNY hospitals, the stronger wording of the twopage disciplinary letters they received contrasts with similar suspension and termination notices issued to nurses and other medical staff by private hospitals.
The vaccination mandate imposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration led to thousands of workers, including doctors and nurses, facing termination at a time when hospitals were cutting services, closing beds and, in some instances, diverting patients to other facilities.
The vaccination mandate also spurred a series of legal challenges to the state Department of Health’s controversial vaccination mandate that compelled hospitals and other medical facilities — including state-run hospitals and nursing homes — to suspend or terminate health care professionals who refused to be vaccinated. Some of those facilities informed the medical professionals that their failure to get vaccinated signaled a voluntary resignation.
Hochul had staunchly defended the mandate and at one point last year asserted that God was responsible for helping scientists and others create the vaccines.
“We are not relenting,” Hochul said at the time. “We’re not backing off . ... There are not legitimate religious exemptions. I feel very confident about our chances in court . ... We have a right to defend our people against a global pandemic.”
Hochul had also asserted the lack of vaccinations for health care workers was more prevalent upstate than downstate,
which she suggested was a result of differing philosophies in certain geographical areas.
Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, which does not represent the nurses employed by SUNY, had questioned the language of the disciplinary notifications issued by SUNY.
Kane questioned how a nurse could be accused of “incompetence” for a personal decision that was not directly related to their work — because they were suspended when the mandate went into effect — and did not involve direct patient care in the line of duty.
“Incompetence has to refer to someone who’s actually practicing; I think they have a right to be concerned, but I also think that kind of statement doesn’t fit the situation,” Kane said. “That’s a statement indicating (a nurse) did something wrong to a patient.”
Kane said the situation had also placed a focus on nurses and other health care professionals who were declining to be vaccinated even as a majority of those workers were holding the line in hospitals and other care facilities that were severely understaffed.